


Rose Rising

by Tabaxi



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M, Fantasy, Heavy ooc of some characters., Spin on Grimm, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:02:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 21
Words: 102,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27603905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabaxi/pseuds/Tabaxi
Summary: Ruby is pulled from a hellish past by Junior and raised by the club members as a if they were family, but she has an unforeseen secret that threatens to ruin the life they enjoyed together.Heavy OOC of some characters. Rated M for safety.A few OC's. AU; same world different happenings.
Relationships: Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 3
Kudos: 26





	1. Chapter 1

It hurt. It always hurt when he came in. She couldn't stop him. No matter what she said he wouldn't stop, until she listened to him. He would hit her, spit on her and threaten worse should she speak out. She was only eight, but he didn't care, his hands would still strike her, his fingers would curl around her limbs, forming bruises as they did so. From what she could tell, it had been going on for around a month, but the cell she was locked in didn't have any windows and so she could only guess by counting the number of sleeps she had, short though they were. He seemed to enjoy interrupting her sleep to conduct his 'tests'. For the first week she hadn't known what he wanted from her when he shouted at her, it was only doing it accidentally to flee from him that she learnt what he wanted. He had called it her 'semblance' and her 'aura', those were the things he was testing. He had been beating her as always when suddenly she seemed to scatter and disappear only to reappear in the opposite corner of the cell, equally confused as he was. But he had grinned at her, he had got what he wanted.

Every day after he would return testing the limits of her abilities, striking her until she was unconscious or swinging at her until she could dodge no more. She almost wished she hadn't avoided that first strike after the first week, maybe then he would have eventually given up, but now he just kept coming back. Most of the marks he left on her would be gone by the time he returned allowing him to justify 'double checking' the previous day's routine to 'test for lingering effects'.

She jerked in surprise as she heard the alarm clock outside the cell ring its shrill tune into the otherwise quiet air. The man often came in before the alarm went off. He would use it as a sort of break and return to his work with her about ten minutes later. Yet he hadn't come in. She dared get her hopes up, maybe someone had found him and put a stop to his practice, but as the minutes drew on, she could hear no irregular noises to further her fantasy. He came in a few hours later, the alarm playing the whole time, eventually seeming to disappear as she became used to the constant beeping.

He wore a dark grey overcoat with gold and brown trimmings along its edges. Coal black gloves lined his hands snugly holding a white clipboard and pen within their grasp. His usually messy black hair was trimmed and styled so that it looked like it had been repeatedly combed back. His trousers were grey like the overcoat with a gold chain hanging loosely out of his right pocket. The only thing that he wore that he usually wore were his shoes, black leather, pointed-toe business shoes with bronze capping on the under-side of the heel and around the toes. She remembered his shoes; he would often stomp on her as a sort of test to see how close to passing out she was as she would only scream if she could spare the energy to.

As he entered the room, he barely acknowledged her being there, as his dim brown eyes studied the clipboard in his hands before he ushered in another figure. This man was larger. Much larger. Her captor had seemed tall, thin, if a bit wiry, but this man was a mountain with legs and flesh. His face made him seem younger than the other, but it didn't look like that meant much to him. His face was schooled into an expression of calm with a short black beard along his jaw and mouth and his eyes seemed almost colourless with their grey hue. He was dressed much more plainly than the other man, only wearing a white dress shirt with a black dress coat over the top with matching trousers and simple black shoes. The only outstanding feature was his bright red tie wrapped around his neck and falling down his chest to end beneath his dress coat. This man would be more intimidating than her captor if she hadn't endured so much at his hand. His white shirt fit closely to his upper body and clearly displayed the packed muscle underneath, almost stressing the fabric around the biceps as he stood with his arms folded. He seemed to take her in after just a moment and his eyebrows rose in surprise as he did so before turning to the other man.

"She seems a little young to be in here. Even by your standards." His voice came out gruff but didn't seem overly aggressive, smooth despite the deep tone. The other man didn't even look up from his clipboard as he replied.

"Yes, well she is, but it isn't every day I have a family donate a child to my business and though the sum they asked for was a little steep I believe her heritage and the results I have come up with are well worth that amount and more. You will soon find out how much more, should you consider her for your purchase." He finally looked up from the clipboard grinning slightly evilly at the other man before chuckling slightly. "How many did you say you wanted again Mr Xiong?"

"That depends on the price you ask for. I ain't made of money after all." He didn't seem to catch on to whatever humour the other was displaying. "What is so special about her heritage anyway?" He seemed genuinely interested. The other man donned another grin this time spreading from ear to ear.

"Well I'm glad you asked. Nice to know you seem interested. You see she was born from two very well-known huntsmen and as such she, by genetics alone, was bound to have the ability to unlock her aura and so I knew the investment would at least bear some fruit, however it is the quality of the fruit that matters yes? Well you see her mother was the late Summer Rose." He paused for effect seeing Mr Xiong process the implications that had before continuing. "Indeed, it is surprising to have the daughter of the alleged 'strongest huntress' so freely given. I assure you the results of my tests prove that she is just as rare a gem as I had hoped for too. Her semblance is very powerful, and her aura levels are of the charts considering she has had no training with it. There is only one other specimen that I have that has even close to the same…" he paused seemingly struggling to produce the desired word before restarting. "'rarity' if you will, and believe it or not that one is only slightly older, though I have yet to discover her semblance, her species alone is rather intriguing." He made to go on, but the bigger man simply raised his hand before appraising the girl one last time.

"I'll take em' both" he said before turning to leave. "Have em' at my place by the morning, I'll let the twins show em' the ropes". There was the light clicking of his shoes as he walked down the darkened corridor. The other simply stared into space for a moment before stuttering.

"Mr Xiong with all due respect, I don't know if you can afford both at a reasonable price and you haven't even seen the other specimen. I am afraid neither will come cheap." He was abruptly silenced by Mr Xiong tossing him a leather wallet.

"Keep the change and make sure they are wearing more than rags when they arrive." He said it with confidence as he continued striding down the hallway punctuating his departure with the closing of a heavy door. The supposed businessman opened the wallet to find it practically overflowing with thousand Lien bills, more than he had likely seen in all his life at once. She saw him blink repeatedly for what seemed minutes as he took it all in, he finally broke his stupor with a malicious chuckle as he once again showed his teeth in a crooked grin.

She flinched as he turned towards her, his back slightly hunched from the barely restrained laughter. "You just made me a lot of money girl. For what it's worth, enjoy your new home, after all, the last one didn't want you." He no longer held back his mirth as he broke out laughing and slammed the cell door once more, plunging her into the cold embrace of darkness as he walked away from her cell. She couldn't hold back her tears as his cackling faded into the distance once again returning her unto silence.

* * *

Hei 'Junior' Xiong wasn't a man many would describe as kind-hearted, and for the most part they would be right. He ran a nightclub in downtown Vale, though most people knew it was home to a vast majority to Vale's shady dealings, it was consequently one of the safest places in Vale. This being because it was a sort of middle ground that no local gangs had sway over and so allowed individuals shady or not a safe night within its walls. Hei, or Junior as he was known, was not clean however, after all it was profitable to dabble in dark dealings here and there. It hadn't taken long for him to slowly become known as a man that could find you anything for a price, be it information, people or contraband. The local law enforcement also hesitated to lash out against him as he kept a peace within his territory and apprehending him would potentially cause a worse situation. He wasn't untouchable but he was certainly given more leeway than almost anyone else.

Despite this however there were individuals that knew him to have a softer core when business wasn't concerned. A pair of such individuals currently stood waiting for him outside his club. The left most one wore a red strapless dress with black linings and a black ribbon tied as a bow around her waist. The dress had stylised black writing along its length seemingly styled to look like newspaper headlines. She also sported a black fur collar, covering her neck and shoulders. The other girl wore much the same only with white instead of red as the main colour of her outfit and a silver chain rather than a ribbon around her mid-section. It wouldn't take long for a casual observer to notice they were twins, unlike most twins, who strive to be different, they seemed to try and hold onto their similarity as much as they could, with the only differences between them being their tastes, for things such as colours and foods, and their respective personalities. Most knew the two of them as the 'Malachite Twins' but Junior knew them as Miltia and Melanie, and legally they were his adopted daughters.

That was mostly a cover up so that the council wouldn't pester him to ask why minors were frequenting his club, though he may be their legal guardian he treated them during work hours more as employees than family. Sure, he looked after their health both during work and outside, but he had bought them and so most saw it as protecting his investment. They acted both as eye candy to attract young hopefuls into his club for business and doubled as bouncers should someone step out of line. He had bought them from the same dealer as he had visited earlier that night and so knew the extent of their capabilities. The seller's name was Apep Lockheart, though his methods of obtaining his 'specimens', as he called them, wasn't known to Junior he couldn't argue with results as the man had an uncanny knack for finding powerful children. The twins were a perfect example of this. He had found them with Apep and at first, he had thought not much of them aside from their above average looks for their age and the fact that they had unlocked their auras. He wouldn't have thought them any different from a random pair of twins, however Apep had quickly explained why they were valuable. They had separate semblances, however they both could benefit from the other's semblance. Melanie's semblance allowed the twins to communicate telepathically so long as both wanted to, and Miltia's semblance allowed the pair of them to swap places within a short range. They were the perfect tag-team, both in combat and for surveillance.

The twins viewed Junior as a father that pulled them from their otherwise poor lives and gave them more than they had hoped for. He gave them designer clothes to keep them looking nice, warm food and their apartment was just across the hall from his and from what they could guess was worth more than most people could even hope to afford. He was slightly icy to them but that was just who he was and after living and working around him for so long they had realised that he would let them get away with almost anything and would always bail them out if they needed him. Miltia tried her hardest not to make that too common of an occurrence, so that she could save Junior as many headaches as possible but Melanie, whilst not actively seeking it, always managed to find trouble. Whether it be causing issues with boys, and occasionally girls, that found her attractive or being a 'little heavy-handed' when telling someone to leave. However, complain as he might he always had their backs in any situation and wasn't afraid to bloody a few noses to prove it.

Both sisters had been trained to fight to a level that would allow them to handle most rowdy club-goers but were currently far from his best bouncers. However, the speed at which they were improving was rather terrifying and he had a feeling that after a few more years of training with Jax, his current best fighter, that would change. The girls were fourteen, though they looked at least sixteen, as many drunk patrons had found out the hard way.

Recently his club had become more of a hotspot for bigger-time criminals. This was fine for him as he still felt safe with his political standing, both in the law and the less savoury, and it was good for business as they often spent a lot of money. However, it had occurred to him that should that change, or another similar establishment were to open, one he couldn't buy out of business, then he may have to prepare to up his security. So, he had visited Apep for what he had hoped to be the last time. Hunter teams were formed of four and so he would have to make sure he had at least that many at his disposal along with his regular lackeys. The girl had been young and from what he could gather the other one hadn't likely been much older but that was fine. It gave them time to adjust to his club and their new lifestyle. He would have them enrol at a hunter academy once the youngest came of age. There was no age limit so the twins would enter at the same time to allow them to get ample opportunity to work together with the other two before graduating. He had spent far more than he had wanted to on the two newbies, but he chalked it up to be a somewhat risky investment, if the two were as remarkable as Apep made out then they were worth it. Besides, though he wouldn't admit it out loud, he couldn't bare seeing a girl that young in Apep's laboratory, he couldn't imagine the trauma she would have let alone what she would have if she had stayed any longer. He had thrown men against walls hard enough to break bones and the information he could offer didn't always come pain free, but children were a soft spot for him. He had been little more than a street rat in his youth and though he now sat as an extremely wealthy individual he didn't like seeing children endure hardships. _I'm getting soft_ he thought before chuckling and looking up to see the twins waiting for him.

Melanie was absentmindedly tapping her foot with her arms crossed whilst Miltia leaned against the club wall waiting for him to approach.

"It's unusual for you to be late for opening June" Melanie questioned as he neared, tilting her head slightly with a hint of a smirk pulling at her lips. The nickname had been given to him by Jax who had said Junior was too much to say and calling him Hei felt weird as most people didn't know his first name, so he shortened it to June. Junior didn't like it much, but after trying for months to get the man to stop he had given up. The twins spent a lot of time training with Jax and so had picked up on the name quickly and eventually also adopted the pet name when it was just the four of them.

"It's past opening hours Melanie so that's Boss, Junior or if ya' really want to say something short, Sir." To a casual observer he may have sounded rather angry but to the three of them it was obvious that he was doing it just in case someone was watching, and the words held no actual venom. "And as to why I was late, I was paying a visit to Apep." The Twins visibly stiffened at the mention of their previous 'owner', the memories all too vivid. They had sworn to each other that they would one day kill him and had made Junior promise not to stop them. He had no intention to and had debated doing it himself a few times but had decided to let them do it when he deemed them ready.

"Why?" Melanie practically snarled the words, though her hair hid her eyes he could tell they were staring daggers into him. Miltia was less vocal with her shock but from his time spent around her he could tell she was almost ready to explode too, straightening from her slouch against the wall.

"Listen before you go feral okay?" his voice was as calming as he dared be on a walkway and though that wasn't much it seemed to at least give the twins pause. "You know as well as I do that there are more and more big-shot criminals coming into Vale and by extension my club. So, we must be prepared, just because we are nigh untouchable now, doesn't mean we always will be, especially if someone like Cinder Fall keeps at it like she was. So, I went and 'acquired'…" the word was said carefully as to avoid offending the pair. "Two more pairs of hands. Capable ones too if I'm right, which I usually am. However, they are young and just like you were they are probably scared shit-less from Apep's… work. Treat em' like family as legally they now are or will be in a few days anyway. They are going to arrive at my place in about an hour and you two are going to pick em' up and try and open em' up over the next few weeks okay, your off duty until then, got it?" The silence hung heavy for a long moment that seemed to extend for several minutes before Miltia finally broke it.

"Okay, we got it." She walked up and laid a comforting hand on Melanie's own, locking eyes for a moment before looking back to Junior. "We know what they've been through, the least we can do is be welcoming." Her smile was bleak and small, but genuine as she spoke. Junior found himself returning the grim expression before nodding. "Will we still train with Jax and will they join us?"

"Yes, you will, and they will too, though obviously they will have to start from the beginning." The twins nodded gravely, though they had leapt wholeheartedly at their training, they could see how a younger child might struggle to do the same, especially straight after leaving Apep. The twins turned to leave but Junior caught their attention with a wave of his massive hands. "One last thing, one of them is supposedly some kind of rare Faunas that makes them look very abnormal, so a warning ahead of time try to get used to it and help them deal with it if it becomes a problem before they can defend themselves." The twins nodded one last time in unison before walking off. Though he could only see their backs as they turned the corner towards his apartment he could tell they were using Melanie's semblance to communicate silently, he chose to leave it, knowing that they were likely very sensitive to outside stimulus right now and the last thing he needed was an angry twin to lash out at the newcomers. He turned to the door pulling out his keys to open it. He needed a bottle of whiskey… or four.

* * *

The light was blinding, as if scorning her for emerging from the darkness in which she had been kept. He led her along by her wrist, twisting it into odd positions whenever she would stumble or resist. She had given up quickly, but he still made sure she knew the punishment for resisting by twisting her wrist anyway. They walked quietly through the compound, the darkened stone corridors only ever changing by the number on the metal doors they passed and the occasional ceiling lamp. Sometimes something or someone behind the doors would hear them pass by and scream or shout or even sometimes strike the door, in a vain attempt to escape the lives they had found themselves in.

She had no idea that he had so many other 'subjects', a small shred of her heart went out to the damned souls that cried unseen, just as she had. The man had given her a nice set of clothes this morning after throwing her into a cold shower. The clothes had consisted of a small red dress that fit her snugly, black tights and black flats. Whilst the outfit was nothing special, it was the most expensive thing the she had ever worn. The red dress had golden symbols travelling up its edges with similarly coloured roses weaved between the writing. The skirt of the dress stopped just above her knees, the tights a stark contrast to the brightly coloured dress she wore. Her hair still hung down to her shoulder blades and wasn't styled in any particular way, though it had been brushed and straightened by a masked woman who had taken the task of bathing and dressing her at her captor's orders.

As she was shoved through the halls she noticed that the light in the corridor was slowly becoming brighter and more natural, turning a greyish hue rather than the artificial orange of the overhead lights. The screaming had grown less frequent as they drew closer to the entrance of the compound. The polished stone floor gradually gave way to a lush grey and white carpet and the walls were adorned with more and more decorations giving colour to the previously bleak world she had been trapped in. It was then she noticed the other girl. She was short, though slightly taller than herself, and currently fighting against the grip of a masked man. She wore an identical dress her own, the only difference being that the main colour being a royal blue with the writing was silver. Her outfit was otherwise identical. She was thin, even for her size, but the girl in front of her seemed at least well fed and judging by the fight she displayed, she hadn't been in the facility as long as she had. The girls sported long brown hair travelling the length of her back before stopping at the small. Her eyes were grey, but somehow seemed brighter than should have been possible, burning with a defiant fire that kept her staring at the girl even as she stumbled as she was dragged along.

However the most drawing factor that the girl possessed was that her skin was switching colours quickly as her struggle was proving fruitless against the man restraining her. It was at first a light brown, which she assumed was her natural skin colour, but it quickly switched between various deep reds. After a short while she seemed to completely disappear against her surroundings, though the man still held her in place prompting her to switch back to her original hue.

Her captor seemed aggravated by the sight of the resisting girl and quickly barked out an order for his lackey to shut her up. The masked man simply nodded and, with some effort, grabbed her arm and rolled up her sleeve. Another figure with the same mask appeared, seemingly from nowhere, and injected a needle into her arm, pumping a clear liquid into her body. The effect was almost immediate and her struggling lessened before eventually stopping altogether as she collapsed, asleep.

She heard a chuckling to her side before feeling a hot breath on the back of her ear.

"Behave, and you won't have to go through that." The threat was heavy, and she quickly schooled herself to a calm position as he let her go and walked up to the other girl. He walked a circle around her unconscious form turning her over to face him with his foot. "Ilia Amitola, subject: F-130, gender: female, race: Faunas, subspecies: Chameleon. Born into the White Fang due to parental affiliation. A mission went south, resulting in the deaths of both parents. She blamed the Fang for their deaths and ran away, only to find herself here after a failed attempt to rob a grocery store for something to eat. Sold to us by the local police for a low price." He paused to chuckle darkly to himself again. "Amazing really, how even the police aren't above human trafficking for the right price and an easier night."

He turned to her as found herself slowly creeping forward, disliking how the masked lackeys were seemingly closing in on her from the shadowed corners of the room. "Like you, she has been purchased by Mr Xiong for a lot of money. I do not know what he wants with you, and to be perfectly honest I could not care less. However, I have been told by a very wealthy benefactor that you may cause problems for them later on in life should you maintain your particular eye colour." He produced a black syringe that had been brought to him by a lackey. She pulled back in horror at his implication. "So, before you go, I am going to have to make sure that doesn't come to pass." She took a step back only to collide with the firm form of a masked man who quickly restrained her. She fought with everything she had, squirming from his grip and kicking out at men that came to help him, but it was in vain. She was too small to resist their strength and didn't know how to control her power, eventually she was pinned to the floor by the black clad men as the leader came forward, his sadistic glee clear on his face as she watched the needle reach for her neck.

She screamed in pain as she felt her skin and muscle convulse under the influence of the cruel liquid. She screamed for what felt like years as she writhed in the agony against the substance but after the minutes passed her voice died in her throat and her eyes glazed over as her once shining silver irises dimmed into a dark red, almost matching her dress. She was met with darkness as he conscious failed to hold onto her senses.

What nobody saw was her back react to the substance. Covered by her dress, none were capable of noticing the mark that grew there.


	2. Chapter 2

The twins had known what they were looking out for. Had even expected it, but they still couldn't stifle their disgust at the sight of the van as it pulled into the driveway. The same van that had originally dropped them off at Junior's. The windows had been blacked out, to avoid curious onlookers discovering too much, and blended almost seamlessly into the black paint job. It had been nigh invisible in the distance where there hadn't been any streetlamps, seemingly slipping from the shadows but a few hundred yards down the road. The sight was nightmarish to the twins, bringing back too many dark memories too quickly. The nightmare realised further as he stepped out of the driver's side door.

It was taking all of Miltia willpower to restrain herself from lashing out at him, giving into her bloodlust would be so easy and she wanted it, but her actions affected Junior too and she couldn't bring herself to sully his name knowingly. Melanie had no such reservations. Her hand began to reach for the handgun Junior had given her for self-defence, as she stormed over to him. He saw her coming and donned that malicious grin that haunted them in their sleep, only finding solace in the fact that it wasn't real, only now it was.

"Well, if it isn't the Malachite twins. My, how you have grown." His words came out in a mocking tone with a small chuckling escaping at the end. Melanie gritted her teeth letting out a growl as she did so. She swiftly drew her handgun with practised ease and aimed it to his forehead. He didn't even flinch as the cold metal pressed into his skull. His smile never faltered as he continued to speak. "It seems you aren't so happy to see me. I can't blame you after all, even I admit I might have had too much _fun_ with you two." He emphasised the word in a hushed whisper that only they could hear. Melanie flinched, a memory playing in her head, it was all he needed.

Suddenly, Apep's hand shot to her stomach forcing her to double over, the gun tumbling to the floor with a metallic clatter. Melanie was sent sprawling, coughing and spluttering as she did so. Apep reached out with his other hand causing the part where he had struck her to glow and her body to fly towards him. He drew back his fist for another strike on the white themed twin, only to meet air as he swung forward. He stumbled off balance slightly as he noticed Miltia ducked low where her sister had previously been. She drove her knee into his stomach causing him to take a few steps back, winded but otherwise fine. The fury in the red twin's eyes spoke volumes of her self-control as she spat her message at him.

"Give us the children and leave! The boss will be back in an hour and I don't want to have to explain to him why there is a body on the road outside." The threat didn't intimidate the man, but he seemed to resign himself to her demands. He may not have feared the twins themselves, but he wasn't willing to make Junior and by extension most of the criminal underbelly of Vale an enemy just for a little fun.

"Alright, alright, just know I won't be so forgiving next time one of you attack me." He messaged his stomach for a moment before heading towards the back of the van. Miltia turned to look at her sister who was slowly picking herself off of the floor and glaring daggers at the trafficker. Using her semblance, she spoke.

'We could have beat him' The statement was a lot more confident than she looked but Miltia decided it best that she not prod her sister's pride in her current state. She rested a hand on her shoulder in her best effort to comfort her sister. 'I know, but we have got to think about June too. We don't want him getting caught up in our mess after everything he has done for us.' Melanie nodded at her sister's words. Truthfully, both of them knew that they probably wouldn't have been able to beat him if the fight had continued. Apep may have been thin in build but still had years of experience of street fighting over them, and unlike the average club brawler her possessed an aura just like they did. Miltia seemed to notice her frustration and continued. 'Look I know you want to get our revenge, but we have to think about what is at stake here and now. We have years to get stronger and we have to comfort the newbies too. Besides, I'm sure they want a chance to pay him back too.'

Before either could say anything more their mental conversation was interrupted by a rough clearing of a throat. The twins looked round to a sight that almost broke their hearts. They had grown accustomed to men and women being hurt on a daily basis, but what they saw almost made them attack the trafficker all over again.

They beheld two girls who stood just in front of him, their heads down and feet together as he had a hand against each of their backs, making both arch their backs in response to the touch, as if it would burn them if it was too firmly pressed against them. The first girl they noticed wore a blue cheongsam with silver characters going up one side. Her skin was a light brown hue and her hair was a darker shade of brown. She was thin even for one of Apep's subjects, this concerned the twins, but they continued to study the pair before speaking up. To their relief she looked otherwise healthy and unharmed.

The other girl was a different story. She wore a red and gold version of the other girl's cheongsam but otherwise wore the same thing. Her hair was raven black that slowly which shifted slowly to a deep red as it neared the tips and she sported startling blood red eyes as she met their gaze. Her skin was pale, a stark contrast as the bruises and welts that littered her exposed arms and face. The twins gasped in horror as they beheld her, and pity swelled in their minds as they saw her shake at Apep's touch. She couldn't have been any older than eight and yet she had already seen more of the twisted parts of the world than most adults could claim.

Miltia felt Melanie ball her fists in barely restrained anger beside her. Apep noticed too and once again wore a toothy grin, taunting the twins by running a hand down one side of the red clad girl's face. Tears could be seen forming in the corners of her eyes as she stiffened at his touch.

"Meet Ilia Amitola," he gestured to the brown skinned girl who looked up at them pleadingly. "And Ruby Rose." He shoved the pair forward causing them to stumble. The twins caught them and looked up, almost snarling at him as he walked back over to his van, waving over his shoulder as he did so. "Tell Junior that I hope he enjoys his new toys, but if he ever gets bored with them, I wait with open arms." He was almost cackling at the end as he closed the driver side door behind him. Seconds later the nightmarish van once again disappeared into the dark murk of the city.

"Asshole." Melanie spoke aloud, too pissed off to bother concealing it in her mind. Her sister hummed her agreement and they both turned to look at the girls who stood before them. The one he had called Ilia was slowly backing away from them, fear evident in her grey eyes. The other girl, Ruby, seemed to sway on her feet, swinging back and forth before eventually falling forward. Miltia caught her, but when she felt the dead weight of the girl she realised she had passed out. She slowly moved her palm to feel the girl's forehead, and almost pulled back at the temperature that she was met with. She was burning up.

"Melanie!" her sister whirled round from trying to comfort the other girl. "She passed out and feels like she could melt at any moment. I'll take them inside go get June and tell him we need medical attention now." Melanie nodded, whispering into Ilia's ear something that seemed to calm her down before running off towards the club.

* * *

The music in the club picked up in volume, drowning out the laughing and chatting of the club members within its lull. Fog machines spewed forth a thin mist that crawled along the floor like a cool phantom, swirling around the unsuspecting feet of the club-goers. There were around one hundred people filling out the dance floor and the surrounding booths, whilst the club could comfortably fit three times as many people, it was still early hours and Junior had been thankful for the slow start. This way he could get slightly drunk without the risk that his club went up in flames whilst he wasn't in his right mind. He wouldn't risk going overboard, business could change on the flip of a coin in the underbelly of Vale, but he could allow himself to slacken slightly. He slammed down the bottle of whiskey he had finished on the bar counter, letting out a loud satisfied gasp as he did so.

The alcohol hadn't been the best quality, but he had intended to drink it too quickly to enjoy the taste and instead decided the burn in his throat was all he needed for now. Still he had always been a sucker for a strong drink and often enough flavour didn't matter to him anymore. He called over for another bottle. Jax who was manning the bar, simply raised his eyebrows but slid a cheap bottle of whiskey across the bar counter.

Jax was a tall and stocky man with short black hair with purple highlights near the top and clothes identical to Junior's with the exception of the lack of a red tie and instead the white button-up shirt was unbuttoned at the top three buttons displaying a toned chest. Junior wouldn't generally tolerate an employee breaking dress code, but he let Jax off under the guise of him being his most trusted friend as well as his staff member. Besides many a lonely woman would stay in his club for an extra drink or two just to try and chat-up Jax. Whilst Junior looked larger and stronger, both of them knew that Jax could likely break his back over his knee if he wanted to. Not to say that Junior was a push over, but Jax was simply a monster in the ring and had a reputation of being a good fighter even outside of the club.

The two had grown up on the streets together, looking out for one another after their orphanage went under. Most of his staff were from that orphanage. The two of them had been the oldest children and had taken it upon themselves to look after the others when they had been released onto the streets. Most of the grunts he used for dirty work had been the younger children, with the more superior members of his clubs' staff being people closer to his age.

Junior's musing on the past had been interrupted by a loud slam as the main entrance to the club had been flung open. He sighed to himself and swivelled the bar stool he was sat on around. To his surprise he was awarded with the sight of Melanie which appeared slightly out of breath as she spotted him and called out to him as she ran over. He had expected a rowdy brawler, who was drunk or had been denied entry for various reasons, he hadn't expected this. She reached him quickly, the clacking of her heels giving him a dull headache as she got closer.

"June! We have a problem. One of the girls that Apep dropped off suddenly collapsed and has a scalding temperature." Junior sobered up quickly at the mention of the girls and the trafficker. Jax put down the glass he was wiping down and walked over at the commotion. Junior stood up and put two fingers to his mouth before letting out a loud, shrill whistle. The response was immediate and before the minute was up three new figures run up to the huge manager along with Jax and Melanie.

"Jax, I need you to fetch Joy from her apartment, she's supposed to be off duty tonight, but this is more important, tell her I'll make it up to her." The burly man let out an affirmative hum before running off towards the back entrance of the club. Junior whirled round to the others present. "Mavis." He turned to a short brown skinned woman with a red and white sports jacket and dark blue jeans, a black beanie covering one eye and the top of her head. "I need you on the roof of the apartment building. You know what Apep's van looks like right?" she nodded and grunted simultaneously. "Good, keep an eye out for it and find me if you see it nearby." She jogged off without even acknowledging the last sentence, but Junior knew she got the orders. She may have had an attitude, but she was loyal to a fault and would listen to almost anything he told her to do.

"Jack." A tall well-dressed man straightened at his name being called. He wore the uniform of the establishment, a black waist coat and white shirt with a red tie around his neck. His soft green eyes betrayed, that unlike most of Junior's staff, he had no place in a fight. He was an older man, in his late sixties, who had worked at the orphanage before it shut down, he felt responsible for the fate of the children and so offered to help in any way he could, when Junior found himself with more money he offered the man a job as repayment. He was part of Junior's three-man medical team, though he had no medical training, but his semblance was useful in that regard. "Go with Melanie back to the apartment and help in any way you can but prepare for Joy to get there." The older man nodded and followed the white twin out of the main entrance though he could not match her pace he was spry for a man his age.

"Jill" the last figure looked up at him, her hazel brown eyes calming his slight panic, before he shook himself of the lull. She wore a revealing blue dress that cut low but had slits along the skirt length giving a generous display of the attractive legs beneath. "I need you to call Roman and tell him that I am unavailable for a business chat today. Make up some story if you need to, something about being ill if need be, but tell him that I only do business in person and so he'll have to wait until I'm available" she nodded before walking calmly into the back of the bar which served as her 'office', in reality it was simply where the club had its only computer and the best signal for calls. Her semblance was another useful one, one that made calls to dangerous people much easier than they had any right to be.

A short blonde man took up Jax's absence behind the bar as if rehearsed to do so and Junior began his walk back towards his apartment. What a night.

* * *

The girl writhed feverishly as Miltia struggled to pin her unconscious form to the bed that the twins shared. Ruby's skin was slick with sweat making her failing grip slip further along the flailing limbs as the girl convulsed in front of her as if possessed by some demon, fighting for control. The occasional moan and whimper escaping the girl's lips as she tossed and turned. Ilia stood, looking on concerned as the nightmarish scene played out. She flinched at the sound of the apartment door suddenly flying open, bouncing off of the door stop as two figures rushed through.

The first was the girl she had seen before, the one who had attempted to comfort her, out of breath and frenzied as she scanned the apartment to search for the source of the commotion. Her light green eyes shot to Ilia who hurriedly pointed in the direction of the other twin and the smaller girl. Melanie gave a curt nod and turned to the other figure who emerged from the doorway behind her.

He was older and had his hands on his knees as he attempted to regain his breath. Ilia initially backed away from the suited man, fear filling her form, experience screaming at her to run from the man before he locked her up just like the rest of them did. However, as he looked up her fear slowly dissipated, his calm, kind eyes displayed none of the malice she had seen in the other men, no ulterior motive, just concern and exhaustion. The white twin spoke after taking a gulp of air.

"Jack she's through there." She gestured to the bedroom where the young girl was gradually growing more violent in her unconscious struggle. The older man nodded and seemed to find new vigour as he walked into the room she gestured to. The twin turned to Ilia; pity full in her eyes as she strode towards the young Faunas.

Ilia could feel her dread build up again, she couldn't help it. Too many people had at first appeared friendly just to later turn her trust into nought but regret as they sold her away. She could see in the corner of her eyes as he skin began to change colours before seemingly disappearing into the shadowed corner of the apartment. Her clothing didn't change colour with her and so displayed clearly where she stood. The older girl seemed to acknowledge the fear that was gripping Ilia and stopped her approach donning a soothing tone as she spoke.

"Everything is going to be okay. I'm not going to hurt you; I just need to make sure you're okay." She took a slow, careful step towards the partially camouflaged girl as she spoke. Closer inspection allowed her to realise that the girl hadn't actually become invisible as she had originally thought, but rather her skin, eyes and hair had changed to match the colours of the environment behind her. The small details of the terrain behind her gave her away slightly but from a distance she was otherwise completely hidden. Melanie slowly reached a hand towards the chameleon girl as she watched her slowly return to her original colour pallet. At first only her eyes became visible but slowly her hair and skin returned to their normal tan colour. Ilia reached her own hand towards the extended limb, cautious but daring.

Melanie grasped the hand in her own before gesturing for the girl to walk towards her, allowing her to move at her own pace rather than risk startling her. Ilia complied after a moment of hesitation. With the gap between them closed Melanie placed her other hand on the shoulder of the smaller girl, kneeling down to her eye level as she did so. The Faunas girl was trembling noticeably, fighting some unseen battle with her emotions. The older girl gently raised her hand, Ilia's still within its soft grasp, to the tanned face of the smaller girl. Ilia flinched away from the touch and Melanie paused before pressing again.

"It's okay, it's okay." She moved her hand forward again, this time the Faunas didn't rear away, though she watched it the whole way, trembling the all the while. Gently, Melanie pressed her slightly clammy hand onto the gaunt face before her. The girl's freckles seemed to change colour, adopting a pink hue before blinking back to their original dark brown. "I'll show you to your room, so you don't have to watch okay?" her voice was as warm as her haggard breath would allow as she spoke, it sounded raspy, but Ilia understood the desired effect and nodded slowly in confirmation.

Melanie smiled and led her by the hand, the pair disappearing from view into the corridor of the apartment building that Junior owned.

Miltia was at her wits end. The girl's feverish struggles had intensified and before she had known it, the sweating body of Ruby had vanished from her grasp leaving nothing but rose petals where she had previously been. A sudden crash drew the twin's attention to the kitchen, the sound of metallic cutlery clanging along the floor alarming her. She ran in to the kitchen to see the red clad girl flailing her limbs around, knocking pots and pans off of the counter she was splayed across. She let out an ear ringing shriek as she suddenly began clawing at her eyes, rolling onto her sides, back and forth as she let out more cries. Miltia ran over as fast as her fatiguing limbs would allow her, trying her hardest to prevent the girl from harming herself in her unconscious rampage. She gripped the girl's wrists in her hands and attempted to force her legs together between her own, though she struggled to maintain her grip on the sweaty limbs.

"Miltia?" a calm voice forced her head to spin around to see Jack looking around for her in the bedroom. She grunted from exertion as she attempted to finally pin the girl down to the counter as she shouted back.

"In here." The older man soon emerged from the doorway horror clear on his face, before he quickly schooled it into the aged calm he always displayed in difficult situations. Miltia gave him as best a run down as she could but the struggling of the girl made it hard. "She passed out after Apep left and has a fever, I couldn't find out anything more as she began flailing around not long after passing out." The older man nodded and moved to Ruby's flailing form.

Miltia watched as Jack bent down gently placing one hand on the girl's jaw and squeezing lightly, holding her head still. He moved his other hand to his mouth and used his teeth to pull off a black glove that had been covering his hand. If Miltia hadn't seen it before she might have flinched at what she saw as black veins weaved their way along his thin skin, like rivers of oil flowing beneath it. He flattened his palm before inspecting it carefully and hovering it over the girl's brow and taking a deep, exaggerated breath. Suddenly he swung his hand over the rest of her body just inches above her flesh and as if by magic as his hand moved along her form she lay still.

Jack stumbled back gasping for air, using his semblance always took a lot out of him these days, and the run had hardly helped. He looked up to see a sweaty Miltia slide her back down the wall opposite him as she too began attempting to catch her breath. He gave her a worried glance, but she waved him off and looked up at the now motionless form of the girl who had caused her so much trouble.

It always amazed her, seeing Jack use his semblance. It would be terrifying, if wielded by anyone else, but Jack would never willing hurt anyone, not that he ever needed worry about having to; his relation to Junior made sure that nobody messed with him or ever tried to manipulate him into doing something he would regret. He could a person's time, meaning that they wouldn't age or decay and equally they couldn't move or be harmed in any way. Whilst under the effects of his power the person became a constant that couldn't change, be it by their own will or someone else's. There were drawbacks, heavy drawbacks, and they showed. Every hour someone spent under Jack's semblance would speed up the rate of decay his cells underwent, shortening his life span. He was actually only around fifty years old, but he looked and felt at least seventy due to his semblance's toll.

"What are we going to do? You can't keep her for like that forever." Her words came out raspy and broken up between breaths. Jack paused before standing up and replying, stumbling slightly as he stood. "Jax went to get Joy. We'll just have to hope she can do something. Otherwise we're in for a long night." Miltia nodded at his words, if anyone could help her it would be Joy; if Miltia had been religious she would have called Joy a miracle worker, she had seen many people do so and could see why. Mavis had gotten shot by a drunk with a sawn-off shotgun one night, she had barely half of her torso remaining after the shot. Most would have assumed her dead on the spot, but Joy had simply bent down and everyone watching had looked on in shock as the football sized hole slowly shrunk being replaced with baby-pink skin. Joy had fainted afterwards and not woken for the rest of the week but was otherwise no worse for wear.

Joy had lorded it over Mavis for weeks, all but forcing the girl to pay for basically everything she wanted. There was no malice behind the act and Miltia was confident that Mavis would have found some way to try and repay her debt anyway, but Joy had enjoyed the process of pushing the younger girl around for weeks more than the actual benefit she got from the exchange. Her inner musings were interrupted by the sound of the door swinging open again.

She slowly stood and turned to see Junior and Jax standing in the doorway frantically looking around for Ruby. Miltia smirked to herself as she beheld the sight; Junior and Jax acted like hardhearted killers during the daylight hours, but the moment that one of their dysfunctional family was potentially in danger they resorted to little more than muscle-headed mother hens. The two were abruptly pushed to the side by the small figure of Joy causing them to trip slightly over the nearby furniture.

Joy was short, even by Militia's standards, standing at slightly under five feet tall. Long blonde hair splayed atop her head in a hurriedly tied bun with streaks of pink mixing in along the tips. She wore a crumpled black and white chequered button-up shirt with blue fraying dungarees over the top. Her blue eyes were bloodshot, likely from a sudden awakening, and her brown boots punctuated her rushed steps with their laces untied and trailing behind. At any other time Miltia probably would have laughed at how easily the diminutive woman pushed passed the giant men with Junior standing almost an entire two feet taller than her.

"Where is she?" her tone was commanding and made it clear she was in no mood to be messed around at this time of night. Her accent was thick, having come from Vacuo, she often spoke using different lingo and dialogue than the rest of them, and Jax would sometimes tease her about it, that is until she sat him on his ass and showed him why she wore such thick-soled boots.

Miltia and Jack both pointed to the kitchen counter where the girl was frozen in time. The counter was raised and required a stool for most people to sit at, for Joy, this meant that the counter was at her eye level. She grumbled before she gestured to the bedroom where Miltia had originally tried to restrain Ruby.

"Bring 'er in 'ere". Jax complied moving swiftly towards the small red-clad girl and lifting her form off of the counter, grunting slightly from exertion; a side-effect of Jack's semblance was that whatever he froze in time became extremely hard to move. "And get those clothes off 'er" Jax suddenly paused almost dropping the girl as he blanched at Joy stuttering something incoherent. Joy let out a single amused laugh. "What? You're gonna' tell me that Jax, the lady killer 'imself, is too squeamish to undress a child who 'aven't even had her first bleed yet? Well I never." Jax opened his mouth to speak, but only a dumbfounded huff came out. Joy simply kissed her teeth before continuing. "Just put 'er on the bed and I'll do it myself ya' sissy." Jax complied and quickly averted his gaze as the small woman began cutting Ruby's cheongsam with a knife had she plucked from one of her dungarees' pockets. Joy didn't let up her berating as she worked. "'ere I was thinking I was working with some of the roughest men in all o' Vale but turns out yer nothin' but steroid abusing babes." Junior frowned at the comment that seemed to include him and snapped back.

"Hey, I could always dock your pay Joy." The threat missed its mark as she huffed a laugh, finishing shearing the clothes away and once again pocketing the knife.

"Like ya' would risk losing me Hei" the words were said as a challenge that hung in the air for a long moment. Junior moved to argue back but stopped himself as he failed to come up with a retort. Though Joy's focus was not on the bumbling of her boss behind her. The others heard her gasp as she knelt down on the bed blocking Ruby from view of the rest of them. She looked around and met Junior's gaze fury clear in her eyes setting their usually dull blue into rivers of molten diamonds as she bore her gaze into him. Junior silently gulped. "Hei Xiong you 'ave some explaining to do… now."

Junior looked at her perplexed, what did she mean. He slowly walked forward silencing his desire to cover his eyes from the naked girl's form. His eyes widened at what he saw displayed along the girl's back, dread bubbling in his stomach as he beheld the sight.

There on the pale, scarred back of the girl was what appeared, at first glance, to be a tattoo sprawling the length of her back covering almost its entirety. It depicted a blood-red rose blooming along and between her shoulder blades with black vines made to look as if they wrapped around her body and amassing at the small of her back. Each vine was lined with hundreds of sharp white thorns that reminded Junior of fangs, some were depicted dripping with blood and the giant man could feel his skin itch as if he could imagine the talon-like spikes raking through his flesh. However, what unsettled him most wasn't the fact that the eight-year-old child had a tattoo, it wasn't the black vines and their razor sharp thorns, it wasn't even the blood that dripped and pooled off of the thorns. No what scared him most was that it… moved.

The vines coiled and writhed along her back twisting and moving along her back as if they were a swarm of snakes in a pit, the blood on the thorns dripping and congregating in pools at the bottom, rippling each time a new drop was added. It didn't make sense; tattoos didn't move, and even if they did, she was under Jack's semblance. Unless… His eyes widened further as he realised what he had done. _Shit_.

"Jax, get everyone and tell them to meet me in the club in an hour, I don't care if their off duty, they're gonna need to hear this." Jax looked confused but nodded and ran off to do as he was told. Junior turned back to Joy. She still stared at him her anger practically humming in the air around her. "Look, I swear I didn't know." She didn't stop staring, he continued. "Just… make sure she's stable and meet us with the others in the club." He held her gaze, she never stopped glaring, but after a moment she nodded curtly and moved to back to her work.

He began walking out but addressed Jack and Miltia as he did so. "Miltia make sure the other girl is settled in with Melanie and then I want the two of you at the club, understand?" she nodded and jogged off towards Ilia's room. Finally, he turned to Jack. "Wait for Joy to finish up then release her from your semblance and come over." The older man nodded but piped up a question before Junior could disappear from sight. "What did you see?" Junior halted seemingly lost in thought as he reflected back on the shifting image on the girl's back. He looked up and continued walking.

"High treason." Came the quiet response as he vanished from sight behind the door.


	3. Chapter 3

_The air was thick with fog, her eyes watering as she strained them to see more than a few inches past her face. Her steps were unsteady as she walked, the loose gravel on the path crunching and grinding against each other with each step she took. It was all she could hear, if she stopped moving there would be silence, not a bird tweeting, not a leaf rustling._

_She was in some sort of garden, or at least she thought she was. She had walked into bushes more than once as she wandered blindly through the cloudy expanse. Each bush was littered with countless roses, ranging from white to black, red to blue, not a single rose the same as any previous. The bushes had pushed her gently off of their forms mass, thorn-less vines steadying her form as she collected her bearings once more._

_Ruby wandered for what felt like hours, content to walk as cool air comforted her. She looked down at her arms and notice that her skin was unmarred by the welts and scars that had been there only that morning. She ran a finger along the length of her wrists, where there had previously been scarring from her shackles constantly rubbing against her flesh, yet all she felt was soft white flesh as she pulled the digit across her forearm. She noticed that she wasn't wearing anything, yet she didn't feel cold. She had been sweating from the constant walking, but the fog had seemed to stop her from overheating._

_Her absent tracing of her, now invisible, scars was interrupted as she heard a high-pitched ringing, like silver bells dangling from strings as the wind gently buffeted them. She frantically looked around, searching for the source of the quiet melody. She turned to her right, finally deciding on the direction, she ran towards the sound. The ringing grew louder as she ran, slowly she could feel herself get closer and closer, and yet after long minutes of running; she saw nothing._

_But she felt it. Something was pressing against her bare back pushing her forward as she ran, stumbling every so often as she sprinted. Finally, the fog cleared revealing a figure in a white cloak standing in a small wooden structure, the face of the figure shadowed by the hooded cloak it wore. She looked behind her to see who had been pushing her along, only to be met with a blood-red rose bush from where she had come. She looked back at the figure puzzled._

_The ringing of the bells drew to a close as the figure reached out a pale skinned hand to cup Ruby's face. She had initially pulled away but as the warm, outstretched hand made contact with her skin she couldn't help but nuzzle into the familiarity it provided. She could feel tears form in her eyes as she looked up at the figure, yet she didn't know why. All she could do was lean further into the touch as the vines of the garden slowly wrapped around her form, gently cocooning her within its mass, the last thing she saw was a pair of piercing silver eyes look her in the eye before saying._

' _Good luck'._

* * *

Junior had known that Apep was mad, insane even, but this? This bordered on suicidal. What was he thinking? Junior looked around at his staff, gathered in the private booth of his club, the music quietly playing in the background. He had ordered an early close up after everyone had gathered and all of the club-goers had been shooed out leaving the group of twenty-six people sat around a large table in the back corner. To his right were the twins, both looking exhausted, though not as exhausted as Joy who Jack was supporting beside them. Ruby hadn't seemed to be in a life-threatening situation, but out of precaution Joy had used her semblance to undo as much damage done to her body as she could, the girl would still scar but she wouldn't have any lasting injuries from her time with Apep.

To Junior's right, stood with his arms folded over his chest, was Jax, running an occasional hand through his highlighted hair. Mavis was to Jax's left and from there the rest of his staff panned out, looking towards the centre of the giant table with Jill being directly opposite Junior. There was a light chatter permeating through the room as they waited for Junior to start talking. Some discussed what they thought this was about, whilst otherwise exchanged small talk or bragged about various un-important things. The last member joined them, making their total number twenty-seven.

His name was Bartholomew, or Bart as they called him, he was one of the few in the inner circle that didn't directly work for Junior though he was born into the orphanage just as they had been. Bart had been prodigiously smart, going on to attend Vale University and later enrolling in a hunter college. He currently worked at said hunter college as a professor of history. He was tall, lanky and unkempt, with round spectacles halfway down his nose and shaggy green hair that had never even seen a comb. He wore a white shirt and a red tie for the occasion, but it was poorly done up and the top few buttons of his shirt were either undone or buttoned incorrectly.

"Sorry for being late everyone, you wouldn't believe the traffic in Vale, even at this hour." Others at the table nodded agreeing with his statement as he sat beside Jill causing her to shuffle away slightly and hold her nose for a moment. It made some of the others chuckle at the sight, Bart had never been the best at remaining hygienic, not because he didn't want to be, but simply because he forgot to stop working to shower, often times falling asleep in the middle of his work. Junior sighed at his friend's antics before standing and grabbing everyone's attention, the room falling silent as he did so. He looked around at them, taking a deep breath before speaking.

"Thank you all for coming, I'm sorry for calling on you so late at night, but this cannot wait." He saw the others nod in understanding around the table curiosity sparking in their eyes as he spoke. He glanced at Joy who had resumed glaring daggers at him, causing him to sigh again. Most of them understood that big meetings like this weren't called simply to catch up and Junior had only called a dozen or so of them in his time running the club. He would often call then when a large, often risky business option arose and he wanted their opinions, some may have thought that to be the case this time, but as they saw him ponder how to speak most knew it was not.

"As some of you know," he glanced to the staff that had been on duty that night, "I went to Apep's place today. There, I purchased two young girls not dissimilar to Melanie and Miltia. They were promising and so I made the decision to take them off his hands." He looked around to gauge their reactions, some looking at him disapprovingly, but most passively contemplating where he was going with this. "The first was a Faunas girl called Ilia Amitola. She is a chameleon Faunas and, though we don't know what her semblance is yet, her heritage will make her a useful spy. The second is a young human girl at the age of eight, by the name of Ruby Rose." He paused for effect before continuing some of them gaping like fish at his words. "Yes, you heard me right, Rose is her last name. At first, I thought Apep was lying to me about the girl's heritage, simply trying to sell me a product if you will. However, Joy and I have seen something tonight that is rather… concerning." He took a preparatory breath.

"The girl has a Grimm mark." The statement hung heavy in the air, choking all those in the room as they spluttered for further answers and let out disbelieving noises and gasps. Junior waited for a moment to allow them to partially work it out of their systems before he continued. "It's true. As you can imagine, this is a big deal, hell if we aren't careful, even we are not safe from the backlash." Bart looked at Junior disbelievingly with his eyebrows raised at the absurdity of the situation.

"Hei, you can't be serious, everybody knows only the royal family, the Branwen family, can survive the application of a Grimm mark. Are you seriously suggesting that Raven has a bastard born child?" The room turned silent as all in attendance turned to Junior. He shook his head causing Bart to further raise his eyebrows.

"No, if what Apep said was the truth, and Summer Rose is this girl's mother then that can only mean the Raven's older brother Qrow is her father." A few of the staff hummed in understanding seeing how that was plausible, after all Summer Rose had served as his bodyguard for many years before her mysterious disappearance. Bart wasn't so trusting.

"Well, what's to say that Apep wasn't lying, if it's as you say, and he was trying to sell her to you then he could have easily lied and made up her relation to Summer Rose." Many let out their agreement it did seem logical for the trafficker to make her seem as valuable as possible to bump up the price. They quieted again as Junior shook his head.

"Because, he had no reason to lie. You and I both know that Apep would have done DNA tests to find out who her parents were and if she was a Branwen, then he wouldn't need Summer's name to make her seem valuable; a Branwen child would have been worth even more." Chatter broke out again for a few moments before quieting down to allow the conversation to continue.

"Then why didn't he claim her to be a Branwen child?" the silence that followed was almost deafening as all heads turned to face Junior. He took another large breath before looking up.

"This is only a theory of mine, but it would make sense, to me at least." He waited for the warning to sink in. "As many of you know Raven Branwen is the second daughter of the Royal family, she is married to the Xiao-Long family's Taiyang. They gave birth to a child that is currently ten years of age and currently in line for the throne just behind Raven, Qrow and of course the current king. However, if my theory is right and Ruby is the bastard daughter of Qrow and his bodyguard and close friend, or in this case secret lover, Summer Rose, then Ruby would be next in line after Raven and Qrow." The silence was smothering as nobody moved from their chairs at the implications this had on their situation. He continued, deciding to put the whole theory out there at once. "What if the Xiao-long family found out about her existence and, after Summer disappeared, decided to get rid of the girl by selling her to Apep." Bart looked up confused and spoke again.

"Why not just kill her?" the question was sound and many in the room made their agreement known.

"Because, nobody knows if Summer is actually dead, she just disappeared as far as anyone knows. It's much easier for them to feign ignorance, should she reappear, as to not knowing the child's heritage and selling her off as a slave than it is to cover up a murder within the Rose household. A murderer runs the risk of getting caught and traced back to them, but simply being 'complacent' and letting someone like Apep into the house when the guards were fewest in number was something that could be chalked up to 'accident'." Bart finally nodded seeing the logic in the train of thought. It was Mavis that spoke up next.

"Well what does this mean for us? It's good an' all that we figured out where she came from, but what will we do with this information? It's not like we can hold her for ransom to the Branwen family or anything, she's a bastard, and unless Qrow acknowledges her as his legitimate kid and marries a woman that's been missing for six years, she's an easy target." Bart nodded before speaking up.

"Could we hand her over to the Rose household?" Junior shook his head and Joy spoke up to fill in his meaning.

"She would just be killed this time. The Xiao-longs wouldn't just let 'er reappear and it would just put a target on our backs for being associated." Jax let out an agreeing grunt as did a few others.

"Then what do we do with her? I mean How did she even get the mark? Don't they have some sort of special ritual that requires them to come of age or something?" It was Bart who interrupted Mavis as she spoke.

"Actually, from what my knowledge on the situation tells me, there are two ways for a Branwen to get a mark." Others leaned into the explanation. "The first is as you know 'the coming of age ritual' they do at the age of thirteen. In this ritual the Branwen child is pushed to their limits for a week straight, living off of only the bare minimum and training with an older Branwen day and night, until they collapse each day. The combined effects of their natural resistance to Grimm blood and their enhanced aura allow them to handle the blood with little issue." Everyone nodded having heard the gruelling tales of the Branwen ritual before. Bart continued.

"The second is far less common, but was how the first Branwens manifested their marks, before the ritual existed. This method is much, much harder." Some in the room gulped but gestured for him to continue. "Tell me Hei, did she have blood depicted on her tattoo?" Junior hesitated, thinking back to the nightmarish sight of the blood dripping off of the white thorns. He nodded. "I, see. That confirms it then. She must have been given Grimm blood at birth or shortly after. Many years ago, when civilisation was in its infancy, the Branwens decided to feast on the Grimm that they killed to survive. The experience would be extremely painful, for a normal person it would most likely prove fatal, with the Grimm blood attempting to devour the individual's soul. However, the Branwens gradually built up a resistance to the blood's effects. You see when a Branwen child goes through the ritual, their soul is pushed to its limits, there will to survive is pushed until it can't take it anymore. This forces their soul to strengthen in order for them to survive they learn to manipulate their souls in order to gain an unearthly power that the family are known for."

"The second method forces the soul to expand by threatening to destroy it with the blood, resulting in a much quicker transformation. This also allows a Branwen to obtain their tattoo before they reach thirteen allowing it to grow faster and stronger than the other method. The problem with it is that it becomes a lot harder to control, the Grimm blood never truly disappears. The blood fuses with the tattoo in order to survive, this means that if the Branwen child does not restrain the small part of them that is now Grimm then they can lose control altogether, becoming Grimm entirely." Bart finished his explanation, only to realise the room was eerily quiet, his friends and family staring at him over the table as he had explained. Junior was first to recover gulping quietly he spoke up, deciding it time they came to a decision.

"Well, there you have it. The question now is, what you all want to do?" he looked around waiting for someone to have the initiative to speak up and voice an opinion. For a moment none spoke up, instead thinking deeply about what options were available to them. It was a small hand on his right elbow that broke him from his own stupor. He looked up to see Miltia and Melanie staring pleadingly at him as they spoke.

"I say we keep her." It was Melanie that spoke first, and though Miltia winced at the blunt approach her sister took, she nodded in agreement as she continued. "She's been through enough." She looked around at the group she considered her family. "She's been a subject to Apep for at least a month, perhaps years, lost her mother, didn't know her other family and now survived being injected with Grimm blood. I can't knowingly push her away, not like everyone else has." Miltia put a hand on her sister's shoulder and walked slightly in front of her to show her support as she spoke.

"I know it seems dangerous, but I agree with the twins" it was Bart who spoke his head leaning on his fingers that were laced over his chin. "You wanted a powerful girl from Apep Hei, well you got one. I will take over her studies when she is ready to learn, and I will try to use my connections in Beacon to get an audience with Qrow. It may take years but hopefully I will manage it." The twins nodded to him gratitude clear in their eyes, he simply sipped from brandy he had swiped from the bar. Junior would have made him pay, but he was offering a lot right now, a cheap brandy was nothing on that. It was Jax who everyone turned to next.

"I've always wanted to fight a Branwen, get a look at that 'ungodly' power myself. Well, now I can train one, seems like that could be fun." The twins shuddered at the mention of his training, he may have been laid back in public, but when fighting was concerned, he was a demon. Junior nodded to his friend as some others slowly put in their own piece. None decided they wanted to get rid of her, most offering to help in some way. The last to speak was Joy who was brooding quietly until the attention turned to her.

"Of course, we're keepin' 'er, the real question is what to do about her tattoo, that ain't easy to simply play off as coincidence." The room hummed in unspoken agreement. "Not only that but none of us know how to control a Grimm mark, how is she gonna learn, especially since she got it harder than a regular Branwen child by doing the old method." Another hum permeated through the air. A voice cut in.

"I may be able to help with that" The voice was calm, if somewhat mocking as it spoke. All heads in the room turned to the man sat on Bart's other side a black bowler hat sat proudly on his bright orange locks as he smoked a cigar. He stood to gesture as he spoke displaying clearly his pristine white suit and black trousers, a red scarf accenting his outfit around his neck. He twirled around a cane as he paced, not out of dependence but just to make a show of it. "You see I have an individual under my employ who is in a similar boat to your young Branwen. If the same generosity is extended to her and Hei is willing, I will give her to you to raise alongside the Rose girl." Junior regarded the man sceptically.

"Roman, what do you mean by similar 'boat'?" Roman chuckled as he beheld the concerned look the usually stoic man was emanating. He corrected himself quickly realising he may be making an ass of himself.

"Well you see, it recently came to my attention that the Branwen family isn't the only one with a resistance to Grimm blood."


	4. Chapter 4

She awoke with a start, rolling out of bed in a panicked frenzy, swinging her arms around as she fell. A warm hand grabbed her arm, halting her fall inches from the floor. There were sounds of struggling behind her as the hand and its twin worked to pull her back onto the bed. Ruby let out laboured breathes as she recovered from her sudden awakening. He had appeared. After the eyes had faded and the world had turned black from the vine's embrace, he had emerged from the darkness, chuckling as he approached her fingers twitching and flexing as he approached. He had reached for her just before she had awoken. She turned to see who had helped her, only to be greeted by Ilia, whose freckles where rapidly switching between dark blue and red as she led down breathing heavily from exertion.

Ilia noticed the girl's attention and instinctively her skin began to blend in with the sheets of the bed they lay on. She bit back her reflex after a moment when she noticed the pain in the other girl's eyes. The girl was pretty now that she really looked at her, she was younger than her, but Ilia could tell she would grow to be beautiful one day. She had desirable features; a soft face, dark hair, large eyes, pale flesh… Ruby noticed Ilia's freckles flash bright pink as the girl suddenly turned to face away from her, letting out a high pitch yelp as she did so. She watched confused, not understanding.

"Are you okay?" Ruby's voice was hoarse and strained, but she managed to speak the words. Ilia looked around slightly concerned by the state of the other girl's voice, only to immediately turn back around at the sight of her. How could she be so clueless? "I'm sorry if I…" Ilia cut her off before she could blame herself.

"No, no, no it's just… you may want to put something on or cover up." Ruby looked confused at the other girl's words before realising what she had said. She hurriedly looked down to realise she was she was stark naked save for a bandage wrapped around her stomach. She blushed furiously and dove under the covers of the bed she had been sitting on. She let out a small cry as she realised her state of undress.

"I-it's okay to look now… sorry" She muffled from under the duvet. Ilia turned to see a pair of eyes and a head of hair peeping out from the edge of the duvet. She giggled slightly at the girl's antics before crawling over to the girl and kneeling in front of her. She let one of her hands slowly wander over to Ruby before speaking letting it sit in the air in front of her for a moment.

"Ilia Amitola, nice to meet you". Ruby was hesitant to reach for the hand, before eventually deciding to trust the girl. She had no idea what was expected of her, so she settled to let her hand float in the air in front of the other hand.

"Ruby, Ruby Rose, nice to meet you too." Ilia giggled again as she saw Ruby awkwardly attempt to figure out what the extended hand meant. After a few more moment she decided to end the girl's confusion and gripped her hand with her own before shaking lightly. Ruby looked just as confused as before but seemed to loosen up a little at the touch as Ilia pulled away. It made Ilia wince slightly as she realised that the girl wasn't used to affection, or even friendly gestures. What happened to her? The other girl interrupted her thoughts.

"Umm, do you know where my clothes are?" Ilia smiled lightly before pointing to the heaped, torn clothing on the floor beside the bed.

"The lady that helped you last night said she had to cut them off to make sure she didn't miss anything." The girl nodded slowly before seeming to think deeply on what she was going to do. Ilia pulled her from her worry. "Don't worry Melanie said they were going to take us to get some clothes today and that you can borrow some of Miltia's old clothes until then, though they may be a bit big." Ruby seemed equally confused as to who and what she was on about but decided not to speak up. Ilia resigned to letting Ruby find out through experience rather than try and explain it to her.

There was an awkward silence for a few moments before they were rescued by the creaking of the apartment door swinging open. The sound caused Ruby to withdraw beneath the covers afraid of who might come in, what they would want, what they would do. Ilia looked on in pity; she had grown more used to her new 'family' over the last week, whilst Ruby had been in her short coma. To prevent her from dying due to lack of nutrition they had to use Joy's semblance every other day to repair and replace the energy and decaying cells in Ruby's body.

Ilia turned to see the twins walking into the bedroom, Melanie covering her mouth as she yawned, exhaustion clearly plaguing the two. Ilia knew that they had struggled to get a full night's sleep since meeting Apep, the encounter dredging up old memories they both wished would remain buried. The twins stopped in sudden shock as they realised that Ilia wasn't the only person awake this time. Small, sad smiles pulled at the edges of their mouths as they beheld the nervous girl, who occasionally peeked out at them from under the covers before retreating again after realising that they were looking at her too.

The Faunas girl watched as the twins exchanged a few knowing glances at each other, a tell-tale sign that they were talking mentally to each other. Silently Ilia wondered what it was like having someone else in your head all the time, being unable to lie to that person, understanding them completely, she couldn't decide if it would be a pleasant feeling or if she would hate the lack of privacy. She shook herself out of her pondering to see them exchange on last concerned look before slowly creeping over to the mass of duvet that hid the form of Ruby. As they drew close, they both released a calming breath before addressing the girl.

"Ruby, it's okay, we aren't going to hurt you." There was no response as Miltia spoke. Her eyes seemed to sadden slightly as the younger girl didn't emerge from the covers. Several minutes seemed to pass in silence before the duvet slowly shifted, revealing the dark hair and eyes of the eight-year-old. She sat up, pressing her back up against the headboard and pulling the covers up to hide her nakedness from the room, revealing just her head and her hands holding the covers. The twins smiled as warmly as they could at the sight of the girl's trust, they knew better than anyone how hard Apep's work could be to recover from. Luckily, they had each other, the presence of the other always setting them at ease, she didn't have that.

Their experiences with the trafficker had shaped both in various ways. In a way, one they hated, he had a key hand in making them who they were, for better or worse. Melanie often came across as being a self-obsessed brat that gave very few people the time of day. This wasn't the case in reality, but her fear of Apep's ministrations had made her slow to trust and easy to piss off. Miltia had been affected differently, whilst she was also slow to trust new people, she maintained her control over her temper a lot better, but also struggled to act forcefully if she needed to. That is unless her family was at risk. Hell, hath no comparison for the fire that would drive her to protect them. One time, about a year ago, a young club-goer in his early twenties had decided to take it upon himself to spike Melanie's drink and try and force his way on the teenager. He had belonged to a small local gang, the members of said gang had only received a medical bill with an extensive list of injuries, including forty or so broken bones, and a hand written note from Junior suggesting they stay clear of his establishment, or risk the wrath of a particular red-clad teenager.

Melanie decided to speak first. "We bought you some more clothes and a few essentials. We were going to wait for you to wake up so you could tell us what you would prefer, but when you were still asleep on Friday we realised that we weren't going to have much free time in the next week or so, so we went without you. Sorry if you don't like them." Ruby tilted her head slightly confused. She looked over to the paper bag containing a few articles of clothing, about six outfits in all. She looked back up at the anticipating twins perplexed as to why they thought she would be upset.

"Thank you." The words were said carefully and quietly but the twins seemed to light up slightly at the small voice. Ilia watched the exchange and felt a small smile pull at her features as she beheld the scene. She hadn't been used to the affection the twins showed a few days ago but had quickly warmed up to her new lifestyle throughout the week, she knew Ruby would take a lot longer to make the transition, but the gesture before her gave her hope. A small pale hand slid out from under the duvet, staying just in front of Miltia who was the closer of the two twins. "Ruby Rose, nice to meet you." The words were broken up with pauses in between the odd syllable but otherwise she seemed comfortable with the phrase Ilia had used before her. Miltia smiled kindly before shaking the hand gently in the same manner Ilia had.

"Miltia Malachite, nice to meet you too." The red twin gestured to her sister before nudging her slightly, prompting her to also extend her hand towards Ruby. The girl didn't seem to realise she was supposed to let go of Militia's hand to shake Melanie's and instead used her other hand to shake it instead. The other girls averted their gaze, out of courtesy for the girl, who simply looked on confused before realising once more that she was naked. She let out a small yelp before pulling her hands back and pulling up the covers again. The others giggled and laughed at the girl's blushing face.

"Melanie Malachite, a pleasure." The words were squeezed out between chuckles and giggles but had the desired effect as Ruby nodded quickly, blush fading slowly as she did so. Melanie decided to explain the situation to Ruby, as she had to Ilia a week ago. "So, welcome to the family Ruby. This is your room now, well yours and Ilia's. You'll get your own rooms when you reach thirteen if you want one, Miltia and I still share but we could use different beds if we ever wanted or needed to." Ruby nodded not fully understanding but rolling with the explanation. Miltia picked up where her sister left off.

"Every day we are trained by Jax between ten a.m. and one p.m., you will join us in doing so from now on, Ilia has already started doing so, don't worry you two are starting from the beginning." She looked over to the younger girls to make sure they were still listening, they were. "After that you will have to study until four p.m. with various people, mostly Bart but he is busy a lot so others will often fill in where they can. After that you have free time for the rest of the day where you may do as you like, you can train some more, read, sleep, play. Whatever you need to pass the time. Junior will likely buy you things to help you pass the time, but I would say you should ask when he returns from his shift at the club." She winked at them, mischief glinting in her eyes as she spoke "He tends to be more… _persuadable_ when he comes back." She decided not to say because he'd most likely have had a fair amount of alcohol by that point. The younger girls nodded, but Ruby looked confused again, the twins decided to let the confusion play out until she asked them about what was bothering her. Melanie finished the explanation.

"We'll be around most of the time, but we have occasional shifts at the club so won't always be around. You'll get to know everybody soon enough so don't worry too much. Anyway… why don't you get dressed Ruby and then come and have some breakfast?" as if on que a loud growl filled the air as Ruby's stomach protested to the lack of food it had been given over the past week. There was another fit of giggling from the twins and Ilia, whilst Ruby looked down in confused horror at the sound her body had made. Melanie spoke between stifled laughs "Sounds like you need it."

* * *

Breakfast had been quick and uneventful, each of the twins had poked fun at the other or at one of the other members of their 'family', each one drawing a laugh from Ilia and a small smile from Ruby who seemed too shy to express anything further. The twins tried not to be disheartened; a smile was progress and progress wasn't always fast, or easy.

After the meal the twins led the younger girls to a small room on the bottom floor of Junior's apartment complex. The club owner owned most of the nearby block and so they didn't encounter anyone as they winded through the halls and stairwells; most of the staff either on duty or resting. After a few minutes the room opened up into a large, wooden tiled floor. Various contraptions and benches of different shapes and sizes filled the room with a large space being left open with a raised blue and red platform protruding in the centre with identically coloured rope dividing it from the outside space. Various chairs and benches lay about, facing the platform.

In the pen, Ruby made out a man. He was large, very large. Not as large as Junior had been, but a close second. Whereas Junior had been a mountain of muscle this man was more like a well sculpted statue one would find in a history museum, depicting the peak of physical fitness. The man was ignoring them, sweating as he performed fast, explosive moves that awed the small child as she watched. His routine ended, his blurred form slowing down after he finished a round-house-kick on his invisible foe. His form was drenched with sweat but he seemed otherwise unfazed, breath only slightly irregular. He wore a white, sleeveless tank top that, due to the sweat, was practically transparent, and a set of knee length black gym shorts. He finally acknowledged them entering the room.

"Hey, I see we finally got the little one to wake up." He extended his hand, pulling off his sweaty hand-wraps before doing so. The small girl was careful, but after an encouraging nudge from Ilia took the hand and gave it a small shake. Jax smiled at the gesture, aware of her caution. "Well, it's nice to finally meet you. Mil, Mel go warm up; we'll give the newcomers a show." He wore a smug grin causing them to roll their eyes and complain quietly as they headed over to the ring to stretch and warm up. Jax turned to Ilia "You remember the routine I taught you?" she nodded quickly her enthusiasm obvious. "Good, think you could run Ruby here through it?" another happy nod. "Good, in about fifteen minutes come watch me and the Twins" she nodded one last time before gently dragging Ruby over to a couple of blue crash mats and demonstrating the basic exercises he had taught her.

Jax turned to look at the twins again, they too doing the routine he had taught them, a memory of a pair of struggling girls failing to do one hundred push ups floated into his head. A fond smile graced his lips as he reminisced. Shaking himself out of his trace he pulled on the ring's ropes before jumping over them in one swift movement and adopting a stance in front of the twins. Shortly after they adopted similar stances. A rustling behind him confirmed that the younger girls had pulled up a bench to watch the fight closely. The twins shared a glance, they were implementing a strategy, good.

"Ilia count down from three for us okay?" she hummed in agreement before doing as she was asked, excitement and anticipation in every number she called.

"3… 2… 1… FIGHT!" she shouted a little too enthusiastically.

Miltia rushed the much larger man, a broadcasted right swing aiming for his jaw. Jax smirked and raised his left arm to block the strike. It never connected instead Miltia was replaced with Melanie who brought an overhead kick from his right side. Instinct kicked in and he dropped and catching the leg as he did so, he leaned in to counterattack with a strike to her thigh only for the twins to once again switch places. Miltia drove an elbow into his gut causing him to step back a small cough escaping his mouth as he did so. Miltia showed a cocky grin at landing the first strike. The fight proceeded the twins would fight Jax by flanking him and swapping places to land surprise hits and change the direction of their attacks.

Ruby leaned over to Ilia. "Can he really beat both? He isn't doing so well." Ilia only giggled and placed a hand on her shoulder. Ruby looked up at the girl to see that her eyes were a bright orange from the excitement taking over her.

"Oh, you don't know Jax. He's testing the waters right now, seeing how much they have improved. Besides even if he wasn't, he hasn't used his semblance yet and that is what earned him his street name after all." Ilia was thrumming with energy as she watched Jax dodge and block the intricate attack pattern of the twins. She was like a fan girl watching her hero in anticipation for their next moment of glory.

"Okay, if you say so." Ruby thought for a bit before asking. "What is his street name?" Ilia positively glowed at the question. She smiled wholeheartedly as she spoke the name.

"The man of steel." Ruby looked confused before a grunt of pain drew her attention back to the fighting ring. Her eyes widened as she beheld the same man now pushing the twins back, his legs and arms practically a blur as he chained together hit after hit forcing the twins on the defensive. The twins switched places and Miltia grabbed Jax's outstretched arm and silently signalled for Melanie to attack from behind. She did so and the axe-kick would have caused some serious damage to most opponents, but Jax didn't even shudder as the kick connected. Ruby watched in shock as his skin seemed to shift and meld into metal, clanging slightly from the impact of the twin's foot.

The man was quick to capitalise on the hesitation of the twins, reversing the hold that Miltia had thrown around him and throwing her over his shoulder to slam into the ground winded. He immediately dropped below a follow up kick from Melanie and used his own leg to hook her feet out from under her and deliver a rolling kick to her now prone form connecting with her stomach and forcing her cough and splutter for a moment. Jax stood up brushing of his shoulders as if the fight had been nought but a warm-up.

"You two have gotten better, if I had been anyone else that manoeuvre at the end there might have hurt. Though, I must say, I can't say I'm enthralled by idea of self-sacrifice in order to hold an opponent still, but hey whatever works right?" he offered a hand to each of the twins, both gave him a slightly venomous glare before switching to a small smile and accepting the hands. He saw them smile and returned it before turning to all of them. "Anyway, today were working on endurance, so all of you do laps around the room, you don't get to stop until I say so got it?" he didn't receive an immediate reply. He switched voices, this time much more force behind his words. "Got it!?" they all jumped slightly before starting to jog around the room. He chuckled after they had gotten far enough away. _Damned kids._

Ruby had practically collapsed, breathing heavy and form slick with sweat. She had been surprisingly durable, the twins making around twenty more laps than she had made before collapsing beside her on a bench. Ilia was the worst when it came to stamina having struck out an entire fifteen laps before Ruby had. That's not to say the number of laps she had managed was normal from a ten-year-old girl, but the others seemed to have her beat when it came to long distance.

It had been a completely different story when Jax had made them balance on a thin beam for as long as they could, incrementally throwing tennis balls at them to try and disrupt their balance. Ilia had come second with Melanie edging her out by a few minutes. Next was Miltia who had balanced for a while but eventually crumbled from a ball hitting her abdomen head on. Ruby had struggled with balance; barely managing to stay on the beam without projectiles being thrown at her, the very first tennis ball had knocked her off balance placing her way behind her competitors.

Next had been strength testing with a set of dumbbells and a punching bag. The two younger children had clocked in at way lower weights than the older girls, puberty and training being a deciding factor in this event. Jax had decided to show off a little bit when Ilia had asked him how much he could lift. He proceeded to dead-lift three hundred kilograms without breaking a sweat, he would have lifted more to continue showing off, but a disgruntled Melanie made him get back on topic. Miltia had managed to lift the most out of the girls, lifting around eighty kilograms to Melanie's seventy.

Jax proceeded to take the younger two through the basic physical routine they would perform daily and then taught them a basic few self-defence moves. This consisted mostly of teaching them how to put their weight behind their punches and telling them where to aim to get someone to back off or let go of them. They were no warriors yet, with years left to improve, but they were learning quickly, and he felt a pang of pride swell in chest as he looked on at the new two taking each other through the routine and the twins sparring off in the distance. He felt old in that moment, he wasn't really; only being thirty-two, but god did he feel it.

His train of thought was halted as he heard the clacking of boots on the wooden floor behind him. He turned to see a mop of ginger hair atop the head of a young woman. She looked to be in her early twenties, possibly her late teens and stood at just under six feet tall. Even from the distance Jax could make out her toned legs as she walked down the corridor. The girl was wearing a similar attire to the girls who were still training behind him, wearing a white gym top with a logo for a local sports team on the front, _The Vale Vikings_ , and knee length shorts. Her feet were clad in heavy black boots with slightly raised heels to add a little extra height to her stature. Set into her face were baby blue eyes that regarded him with confidence and light mischief as she drew closer. What caught his eye the most however, was the thick metal choker that wrapped around her throat and similar looking decorations on her wrists. She didn't seem to mind their presence, but he could imagine they had to be uncomfortable, from each hung small silver crosses dangling on short, thin chains.

"And who might you be?" Jax questioned, sounding to most to be carefree, but closer inspection would show his wariness at the sudden appearance of the unknown person. She didn't reply, instead walking closer, her smirk turning into a full-blown grin as he frowned at her. He decided to play along. "Look sweetheart, club's that way." He gestured with his index fingers to the front doors. She ignored him and walked up to the ring, sliding under the ropes as she did so. He sighed and followed her to the ring before warning her. "Lady, you can't be here; this is private property." She finally turned to him and he realised that they were standing in opposite corners of the ring.

The twins were sparring beside them, but she gestured for them to stop and step out of the ring. They looked at her confused, turning to Jax to for an answer he simply shrugged and nodded for them to step out for a moment. They slowly complied and sat next to Ruby and Ilia on a nearby bench. The mystery woman adopted a defensive stance that Jax recognised from his years of fighting. She was trained then, perfect. The burly man rolled his shoulders before adopting his own stance, this one a little more offensive. He looked her up and down, admiring the tensed muscles like a coiled spring, she had trained hard and, whilst he wouldn't admit it aloud, he liked it when women put up a fight.

"Can I at least get a name darlin'?" she simply smirked at him before beckoning for him to attack. He sighed to himself, hardening his gaze at her, fine, he would oblige. He leapt forward, halting his momentum just before he reached her allowing all the force to translate into a low uppercut to her stomach. She reacted in time, stepping to the side before attempting to deliver her own heavy hit to his face. His left hand shot up to the balled fist, forcing it to turn to the side and ending with him inside of her guard. She looked surprise in that moment at his reaction speed and she didn't see the knee he brought to her abdomen. She stumbled back a few steps, coughing lightly.

He watched as she wiped the spittle around her mouth away and donned an amused grin. Her eyes seemed to light up at the idea of a challenge, one he himself seemed excited to offer. It had been quite a while since someone had taken a hit from him that well. She met his eyes and moved to speak.

"Nora." He looked confused, if a little enthralled. She continued. "My name." he nodded adopting his own grin, this might be rather fun.

He rushed her, again stopping just in front of her before unleashing a flurry of jabs. She blocked them all, conceding a step under the pressure he was applying to her. She grit her teeth and set her feet as he attempted to sweep out her legs from under her. She smirked and rolled to the side, striking his left shoulder hard as his leg went wide. It was his turn to stumble back. He rolled his shoulder wincing slightly as it clicked. He shot her a look, a smile clear on his face. Off to the side Melanie and Miltia rubbed their temples at his childish glee.

"Okay, how about we go all out? What do ya' say? I'll show you mine if you show me yours." She quirked her eyebrows bemusedly at his comment. She moved to pull off her jacket but paused to look at Ruby as she did so. Everybody looked at her confused as she walked to the edge of the ring and winked at the smaller girl.

"Watch and learn gem." She threw off her white and pink jacket to reveal a black sports bra that descended to her belly button. She turned to Jax giving, noticing as he stared a little too long. She shot him a challenging smirk. "Alright tin man, show me what you got." The girls on the benches gasp as she turned her back to them displaying the moving tattoo dancing along the length of her back. Ruby's hand subconsciously moved to her own mark as she watched in amazement. Jax was thrilled at the prospect.

"Now we're talking my language." His skin began to shift into its metallic form as he adopted his stance once more.

Nora's tattoo depicted a horned white tiger roaring, surrounded by lightning that flashed incrementally across the stormy night sky behind the creature before striking just beside the beast. Rain gathered in small puddles at the tiger's feet before seemingly falling of an invisible cliff at the bottom of the mark.

The woman looked up at Jax as she spoke. "I can't go all out, but I'll try not to disappoint." Jax looked slightly disappointed but nodded and set his feet again. She grinned at the opportunity presented to her. She reached to her wrists and tore of the chained crosses from each of the bracelets, causing them to fall off. The others looked on in shock as they realised the bracelets had needles on the inside of the band. The ginger woman rubbed her wrists at the feeling of release and let out a relieved breath at the sensation. Her tattoo also seemed to shift, the rain growing heavier, the lightning flashing more frequently. She levelled a keen gaze at Jax, hungry. "Get, ready."

Ruby's gut seemed to twist at the sentence, as if her very being was trying to retreat from the warrior woman in front of her. She shuddered at the overwhelming sense of dread that swamped her thoughts, she had to get away, it wasn't safe, and she was in danger… Her decent was stopped when Miltia put a hand on her shoulder, Ruby looked up at her.

"Ruby? You okay?" concern laced her eyes as she beheld the trembling girl beside her. She had noticed Ruby shrink and slowly edge off the bench they were sat on. The smaller girl thought for a moment, swallowed and nodded. Miltia looked on suspicious, but before long they both looked back towards the ring.

Nora stood side-on, one arm in front of the other, fingers flexing as she bobbed up and down on the spot. Meanwhile Jax was looking at the barbed bracelets on the floor deciding to probe further.

"That's some heavy metal jewellery right there, I don't know how much of a difference taking it off will make though. But hey whatever works for you." Nora's cocky smile widened, he returned it but felt concern pull at the edge of his mind. She was different, but how? She didn't give him time to think.

She launched forward, closing the distance way faster than he had anticipated. She landed a strike to his shoulder, he stumbled but reversed the situation driving an elbow into her stomach and throwing her over his shoulder. She stuck the landing and snap-kicked his chest forcing him to take a few steps back, giving her space once more. She rolled her neck and cracked her knuckles before raising her guard again. The twins knew that it hurt to punch Jax when he used his semblance, yet this woman had just shrugged it off as if nothing had changed. Jax hadn't taken any real damage either, but something was off, not much had changed since she removed her bracelets and yet she made a big deal of getting Ruby's attention. That's when they saw it.

There, dancing along the woman's fingertips was what looked like tiny sparks of electricity. Jax rushed her, deciding to end it whilst she was setting her footing. He blurred forward appearing next to her and aiming a right hook for her chest. As the strike connected Jax's world flashed white and he was thrown against the ropes behind him. He shook his head to clear it and looked up to see electricity arcing repeatedly between the palms of her hands. He groaned, standing up as he did so. _Okay… so that's new._ Jax grit his teeth and let out a slight snarl at the challenging look she pointed at him. He wiped his mouth of spit and the coppery taste of blood, a hardness overcoming his eyes. _No more playing around._

Jax's hands seemed to melt and reshape before eventually shaping into two new forms on the end of his arms. His right hand had taken the form of a dull mallet, the air making a whooshing sound as he gave it a few practice swings. His left hand had become shield, which covered most of his upper body as he raised it. He bent his knees, crouching behind the shield his hammer-hand behind him slightly. Nora opened her mouth to speak, but he charged her forcing a stifled noise to escape her throat as she fought to control her panic.

He swung high with his shield arm, forcing her to duck underneath, only to be met with the mallet on the upswing. She twisted her body, making minimal area for it to impact, it still hurt. She caught his overextended wrist and forced electricity into his body. He cried out in pain but raised an iron foot to her gut and kicked her away causing her to sprawl across the floor from the force. His breath drew short as he gathered himself. He couldn't afford to get caught like that again, unfortunately his metal form wasn't able to protect against the energy she forced through it. Luckily for him she looked equally as dazed as he did and struggled to regain her balance.

One of her hands subconsciously travelled up to her choker, fiddling with the last cross. The clearing of a throat interrupted the motion. All eyes in the room turned to see Roman slowly walking towards the ring, clapping slowly with his cane dangling off one arm.

"Bravo, bravo. I must say, that was quite the _shocking_ performance." Both Nora and Jax levelled a glare at him as he walked up to the ring like prize peacock not showing any hint of being sorry for the pun. He pulled himself up to the ring and stood beside Nora but leaned on the ropes beside her and peered over at Ruby. "Ah, you must be Ruby, it's a pleasure to meet you." He tipped his hat towards her and chuckled slightly at the confused look she donned at the gesture, she pulled on the front of her hair in an attempt to mimic the action. "Well, I guess introductions are in in order. This here is Nora Valkyrie and she will be teaching you how to reign in your soul manifestation." This caused Nora to tiredly wave to the smaller girl, smirk still plastered on her face.

"Where the hell did you find someone with a Grimm mark outside of a Branwen child?" Roman's smile never faltered as he looked at Jax as he picked himself off the floor. "And stop using your semblance to sneak up on people, it's fucking creepy." Roman feigned hurt at the words.

"Are you suggesting that you don't trust me? That you don't feel safe with me using my semblance how I wish. And here I was thinking that the man of steel feared nobody." The mocking in his tone was clear and his cocky smile had returned quickly.

"Fuck off, just tell me where you found lightning lady over there." He pointed to the ginger woman who winked at him before turning to her 'boss'. Roman paused to chuckle taking in the slight victory over Jax.

"Alright, alright, if you insist. Well you see Nora here heralds from a nomad tribe that lived out on the outskirts of Mistral. They, like the Branwens of old fed on the Grimm in order to survive and like the Branwens have adapted to be able to resist the effects of the blood. It turns out the Branwens are pretty attached to the exclusivity of their power and so when they caught wind of the tribe fifteen years ago, they decided to slaughter the whole tribe in their sleep. A particular six-year-old girl managed to escape the carnage, and I'm sure you can piece the rest together yourself." Roman's smile faltered for a moment as he beheld the dark look that crossed Nora's features, likely remembering the scene she had fled. For a moment he considered reaching out to her but was beaten to it.

Ruby and Ilia had practically run to the girl's side both hugging her around the waist as hard as they could. Her eyes brightened slightly at the affection and she left her hand drift down to ruffle their hair. Her tattoo was roaring at the closeness of another marked girl, yelling at her to kill her, to make sure she wouldn't ever try to do what her family had, to survive. She bit it back, the emotion fading into the back of her head as she wrestled away the Grimm that dwelt within. She froze however when it returned in full, this time ordering her to dive to the side, she had no choice but to do so, grabbing Ilia and diving to the edge of the ring. Only for the spot she had been stood on to shatter and break under the force of something she didn't see. She stood up quickly and looked back to the centre of the ring.

There stood in the middle of the ring was Ruby, eyes blood red as she snarled at the older girl. What drew her eyes however were the black, serrated vines that wove around her form as she stood. They protruded from her shadow, splashing out into the world like a writhing mass of sentient tendrils, consuming all that came near. Nora looked at where she had previously stood, a hole had opened in the floor where several thick vines had slammed into the ground. _Shit; I forgot she doesn't know._ Nora threw Ilia to Roman who looked confused as he beheld the stare down between the marked.

"Run! Get everyone and run!" Nora's voice held no playful tune, no cockiness, and no room for denial. She reached up to her choker and tore off the last cross causing the glorified collar to clank to the ground. Jax moved to question and protest only for Roman to run up to him and the pair of them and Ilia to disappear. The twins heeded the warning and ran for the glass door of the room, leaving in a hurry.

Nora struggled to contain the ecstasy at the removal of her last limiter. Her mark allowed her to generate huge voltages of electricity and bend it to her will, the problem being she couldn't turn it off completely. After years they had come up with the idea of having her where the limiters which would absorb some of the electricity, lowering the amount she output to unnoticeable levels so touching people didn't kill them. With all three removed, she could produce enough energy to power an entire city. Containing the power was uncomfortable, she would describe it as walking with a brace forcing both of your legs to remain straight. She flexed her fingers, jolts of electricity arcing almost happily between each digit.

She looked up to see Ruby's vines lashing out towards her.


	5. Chapter 5

_Her world had turned black, the only colour in the abyss being that of the burning red eyes that stared at her hungrily. They were everywhere, she turned they were behind her, above her, flanking her, everywhere._

' _Rip, tear, rend, flay, feast…' the chant continued repeating the same words again and again, each set of eyes joining the ever-growing chorus. Then it stopped and they appeared._

_It was short with red and black hair and the same burning eyes as before. It had pale skin it… it was her. Only this version of her had a black rose with white thorns coiled around her arm, the thorns moving carefully as to not harm the girl before her. All she could do was gawk as she saw her mirror image stroll up to her, an angry fire burning in her eyes. She spoke._

" _Rip, tear, rend, flay… FEAST!" The copy suddenly threw out her arm, serrated vines flying towards her and wrapping around her limbs, immobilising her and cutting into her flesh as she struggled against the restraints. The other her repeated the chant again and again drawing closer and closer. Every word was said with more vigour than the last before eventually becoming hungry snarls as she drew face to face with her._

" _Plea…" her pleading was silenced by a vine coiling around her throat causing her to splutter and fight for breath. Her eyes were blurry from the coughing fit and she rapidly blinked to clear them, that's when she saw it… them._

_There just a few dozen feet from her helpless form was a sea of moving shadows that snarled and roared as she was raised high by the vines. There were, what seemed like animals but each one twisted in some unholy manner. Bears with armoured bone plating, wolves that stood on their hind legs, snakes with two heads, and ravens with six eyes. The list went on, each animal just as deformed as the last. She was slowly lowered back down to her copy's level and the cacophony stopped, even the doppelganger silent as she closed the remaining distance._

_Suddenly she leaned in and kissed her forcefully and slowly dissipated as she did so. A moment passed and she was gone, and Ruby was released from the vine's grip, gently being placed on her feet. One branch coiled in on itself and its thorns angled themselves skyward. Another branch grasped it and placed the circlet on Ruby's unsuspecting head. Behind her she heard a familiar voice. She turned to see the white cloaked figure from before, silver eyes burning gently as it beheld Ruby and the wave of beasts behind her._

" _Long live the queen!" The figure shouted and promptly knelt before her. The cry was mimicked by the beasts behind her, each with varying tone an intensity. Each lowered their head or bowed in anyway their forms would allow._

" _Long live the queen!"_

* * *

Nora's breath was ragged, her skin had been sliced repeatedly from the talon like thorns on Ruby's vines. She had managed to avoid any lasting damage but dodging constantly was tiring her out. Not to mention she wasn't allowed to give the fight her all or risk killing the girl…

That had been her thought process a few minutes ago, now she was struggling to remain awake, something in Ruby had changed; she had started just sloppily swinging and flailing out at her, but now each strike goaded Nora into another. With the mental change had come a physical one. A black rose with white thorns had sprung from her shadow, coiling itself around her forearm. Each time Nora had failed to avoid getting hit by a vine a smoky black wisp had come from the wound and snagged on the thorns. The thorns would return to the rose and seemingly the rose would consume it. Nothing had come from the exchange but as the fight continued and she struggled to maintain a positive outlook she realised that the wisps had grown larger and more frequent.

She couldn't win this fight whilst holding back, but could she avoid killing Ruby? She didn't know, but she wasn't going to last much longer if she kept at her current pace. A vine snapped around her left foot and pulled hard enough to force her to fall onto her back. Like crazed animals the other vines piled on top of her, pinning her limbs and slashing at her skin as they constricted her form. She cried in pain, and she could feel her tattoo roar at her for holding back. She breathed deeply. _Fine._ Nora let go, her light blue eyes shifting red.

A bright blue flash flooded out from the mass of writhing vines that swarmed the older girl. Each vine was consumed and destroyed as the overwhelming energy rapidly expanded out from the prone form of Nora. Her tattoo had grown, now along her arms and legs were white and black stripes, electricity dancing between her fingers. She rose, slowly approaching Ruby, watching as the vines were swallowed by the blue electrical shield, disintegrating on contact. Nora lifted her hand, a bolt of lightning striking the floor beside Ruby causing the girl to fall over backwards. The vines surged forward with renewed vigour but were shredded just as the others had been. The possessed girl screamed on the floor, a mantra escaping her tongue even through the pained wailing.

"Rip, tear, rend, flay, FEAST!" Her shadow seemed to darken and expand, eventually engulfing the whole ring in which they stood. She raised a hand towards the rose and from it came a concentrated ball of the black wispy substance from before. Nora decided it best not find out what she was doing.

Lightning shot from the same outstretched hand, vines rose to meet it this time, forming a wall between the energy and the intended target. Nora pushed more energy into the attack, but even as she did so she could see the wall reforming its writhing mass quicker than she could vaporise it. Her inner Grimm screamed that they had to kill this girl now, that she was too dangerous to let live. She struggled against the beast, causing her to falter for just a moment.

It was all Ruby had needed. Suddenly the wall of vines surged forward and enveloped the older girl. She reached within, preparing to create another shield as she had before. The vines never gave her a chance instead throwing her against the wall before she could destroy them. The concrete spider-webbed from the force of the impact. She screamed in pain as once again the black wisps appeared and were swatted from the air before passing over to Ruby's outstretched hand.

She watched as Ruby looked down at the wispy substance before disappearing. Nora blinked. Where did she go? Suddenly the girl appeared next to her, the wispy substance coalescing in her hand before finalising itself in the shape that resembled a choker or collar with a black rose in the centre, white thorns lining the outside. Nora moved to protest, but a vine quickly took the item from the small girl's hands and forced it around her neck. She tried to force it off but every time one of the sides broke from her attempts it would simply reform not a second later.

Suddenly, she stopped. Her Grimm was unusually quiet. The whole time since walking into the room it had been running rampant attempting to make her attack the younger girl, but now as she looked into her mind to see what it was doing, she couldn't believe the sight she beheld. There, prostrated with a collar identical to her own, was the tiger she had wrestled with for years, and there stroking it as if it were no more than a house cat was Ruby. She shook herself out of her thoughts in disbelief looking up to see that Ruby had passed out, vines retracting back into her shadow, though the rose remained.

She could hear shouting in the background, likely the others hearing the fight was over, due to the quite that had replaced the rumbling from before. She reached for them, but her strength failed, sight fading as she watched five blurry figures run towards them. They were calling to her, but she couldn't make anything out, as if her ears were full of water, all she could hear was muffled sounds and a high-pitched ringing as the void enveloped her.

* * *

Bart was sat at his desk deep in the halls of Beacon Hunter's Academy. He was, he liked to think, a very organised professor. It helped that he enjoyed his work, he enjoyed learning about history, and he enjoyed teaching it. His semblance made the pursuit of knowledge even more interesting for the eccentric man, allowing him to touch an object and view history from its perspective. For a long time as a child he had considered becoming a private investigator. After all he could make even the most meticulous criminals easy pickings as he could watch them commit the crime after they had done it, there could be no more solid evidence.

However, his connections to some of said criminals made him hesitant to do so, accidentally uncovering one of his family's actions would cause some convoluted complications he had decided he didn't want to deal with. He was called on by Junior and co every so often to dig up some dirt on other criminals or rival establishments. This made running other people out of business or making sure the peace was maintained a lot easier.

His passion for history had been found when one day in his school years; he had managed to dig up something that had dated back to the first king of Vale. It hadn't been a significant object, a pair of men's leather gloves, but it had allowed him to see what life had been like eight hundred years ago. The sight of the countryside and the story of the people who had owned the gloves had intrigued him for hours, stuck re-watching the scenes over and over again in dumbstruck awe. He had thrown himself into his studies, acing all his subjects in order to earn the privilege of attending Beacon Academy on a full sponsorship. He had to train to be a huntsman at the academy, but he was keen to do so, the training allowed him to access ruins that normal civilians would be unable to go into due to the danger of what may lay inside.

Glynda Goodwitch, his boss and deputy-headmistress, seemed to disagree. The woman was crazy. Tidiness, discipline, grace, strictness… the list went on, all these things she expected from the staff and she was constantly on his back because he wasn't many of them. His office was a mess, an organised one he would argue, but a mess none the less. Of course, she didn't understand the work it took to clean it up that others had to go through, her semblance being telekinesis allowed her to simply wave her hand and the room would look exactly how she wanted it to. It didn't help that he was one of only two history professors when most other subjects had at least five and history was far from the least popular subject, thus he had to teach almost every class himself due to the other history professor being the headmaster, who was often 'too busy' and had to give Bart the class so he could 'attend a meeting'. Meeting indeed. Bart knew it was bullshit, for all her pomp and strictness, Glynda could not hide her flustered state when exiting the headmaster's office well, and it was common knowledge that the two were having some very 'interesting' meetings. One of these days a child would walk out of those 'meetings', then at least maybe they would stop that pointless charade and get some work done.

So, it was with barely restrained anger that he massaged his temples as the blonde woman paced in front of him, lecturing him on his slackness in recent weeks. In truth, over the last week, he had been tirelessly searching for any and all information around the Branwen family and people with Grimm marks in history and the extent of their abilities. The information had been hard to find and half of what he had found was subject to suspicion due to having unnamed sources. He had been nose deep in researching Qrow Branwen and Summer Rose, when Glynda had unceremoniously wandered in. He had quickly switched to a different, more legal, web-page, unfortunately the page he changed to, had been game page and here she was now lecturing him on his apparent lack of dedication to his job.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. He looked up to see Glynda turn away from him as she began pacing in the opposite direction and decided to check the notification. His eyebrows rose suspiciously, it was from Hei. That was odd, the club shouldn't be open this early in the day, what could they need him for? He sent a reply asking for the reason as to why they needed him. He took a sip of his coffee, the brew was possibly one of three friends he had at this establishment, making every gruelling day more bearable. He couldn't say that he could really taste anything when he drank it, but the energy it supplied was the important bit and he drank it by the gallon.

Another silent buzz emanated from his phone causing it to wander slightly across his desk. He looked up to see Glynda admiring something out the window and decided to take the opportunity to read the message. Glynda spun round at the sound of him spitting his coffee back up all over his computer screen and nearby paperwork. The blonde blinked at him as he paid her no mind, simply gawking in disbelief at his phone.

"Professor Oobleck, what on earth…" he suddenly shot out of his chair and practically ran over to the coat hanger in the corner of his office and pulled on a thick brown duffel coat. He then proceeded to walk out of the office, pushing Glynda, who protested the whole way, along with him. He turned to lock the door behind him and took off down the corridor shouting over his shoulder.

"I am terribly sorry for interrupting your _Riveting_ speech" he let his sarcasm be heard, Beacon couldn't run without him, not to mention he could threaten to reveal the 'secret' relationship between his bosses, so he didn't bother acting proper at that moment. "But I am afraid my uh… daughter is going into labour, must dash off, I can't miss the big moment and all that." Glynda looked unconvinced and suspicious.

"You're only thirty! Any daughter you have could only be…" he cut her off shouting over a sea of students moving between lessons.

"I know, but you know how kids are these days, anyway bye." He saluted in the distance before taking off in a full sprint towards the car park at the front of the Academy. Glynda was left blinking, dumbfounded, as he disappeared. What just happened?

Junior had been absently drumming his fingers across the counter of the kitchen table when he heard the front door burst open. He sighed, Bart wasn't the most subtle man, but he could at least not cause property damage. He didn't bother to get up to meet him, hearing his hurried footsteps around the corner into the kitchen. He was out of breath and the brief case he had brought with him was only remaining closed by one latch.

* * *

"Hei, what happened?" The words escaped between ragged breaths and the fumbling of him shaking off his coat. Junior took the opportunity to stand and turn to face him. On the outside he appeared calm in the face of the storm that he faced, but Bart could tell by the dim fire in his grey eyes that he was barley restraining his panic. The message had been brief, not clearing up much as to what happened; simply saying that Ruby had destroyed half of the gym and now both her and the girl Roman brought were unconscious.

"I was hoping you would help us figure that out." The words were stern and held a small amount of authority. Junior didn't like ordering people outside of business hours and they all knew it, the fact that he wasn't restraining himself now proved just how badly he wanted to know. Bart nodded, undoing the second latch on his briefcase and flipping open a laptop that lay inside on top of a stack of paper and a few chocolate bars of varying brand. The laptop hummed to life, the screen turning a light blue and adopting a loading symbol in the centre. Bart turned back to Junior as his home screen displayed itself, a picture of a cat hanging from a rope with the caption 'Hang in there'. Junior raised his eyebrows at the image, but Bart ignored him.

"Where are they?" Junior nodded to the bedroom, the door to which lay ajar so he could see into the room. Inside Bart could make out the forms of Ruby and a ginger girl in her early twenties. Asleep beside Ruby in a chair with her head on the side of the bed beside Ruby's legs was Miltia. "So, what happened?" the question was vague, but Junior knew what he was referring to.

"Nora here turned up when the girls were in the middle of a training session with Jax. She took it upon herself to fight him, it was supposedly even until Roman interrupted. He brought up Nora's past and it bummed her out a bit, this caused Ruby and Ilia to run up to her and try and comfort her. One moment they're having a heart to heart, the next, Ruby is trying to kill her." They walked into the room and looked over to Nora for lasting injuries. Most had healed a few fading cuts all that remained after Joy had helped, but no matter what they tried they couldn't get the black choker off Nora. Bart wandered over and reached out to touch the rose on the front of the choker. It pulled away from his touch and white thorn speared his finger drawing blood. He gave a slight yelp but peered closer.

"What is this? I-it can't be, it's impossible." Bart was stammering as the Rose returned to its original position on the glorified collar. The colour, the way it moved and the feeling it emitted it was… a Grimm. "Hei, do you know what this is?" he restrained his revelation barely in respect for the sleeping. Junior simply met his gaze before slowly nodding. Bart's mouth remained open like a gaping fish, but he quickly turned back to the collar. "I have to be sure." He quickly snapped his hand towards the accessory activating his semblance as he did so.

_Hatred, pain, concern, blood-lust and worry given form. Torn from the wearer, moulded by the queen. It had tamed the wilful, shown it who was stronger. Subjugate, bend, break… protect._

_An image of Ruby kneading the collar out of a shadowy substance that whirled around her hands formed in his head. She had been scared, but angry, the collar could tell, though it could not tell why. The earliest memory he could pull from the collar was of a serrated vine slashing at Nora, leaving a deep cut in its wake._

Bart was pulled from his visions as the collar once again slashed at the fingers, he was holding it with. He pulled back wincing and hissing as he put his bleeding digits in his mouth. What had happened? The Collar had existed for barely a few seconds before it had been put on Nora and even from the very first moment it was made it knew its purpose as if directed by something else. He pondered deeply and his eyes wondered over to the smaller girl that lay beside her. One of her arms was above the duvet and wrapped by a black rose that curled carefully around her forearm, as if careful not to harm her. His hand hadn't even gotten within a metre of the Rose before it swiped at it in the air, he had managed to pull back, but he could get no closer. This was more complex then. Perhaps he would have to wait until Ruby was awake. Still this was unheard of.

"Hei, I have never heard of anything like this. Bonding with a Grimm by ingesting its blood is one thing, but creating another, it shouldn't be possible, isn't possible as far as scientists are concerned." Junior levelled a gaze at the eccentric man simply sighing and rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Would you believe me if I said, that by this point it hardly surprises me?" Bart ignored him and stroked the tufts of hair on his chin, deep in thought. His pondering was interrupted by the dull thud of shoes hitting the carpeted floor. Bart and Junior looked up to see Roman seemingly emerge from nowhere. Bart tensed a little, unsure as to how much he wanted the man to know about the situation. It was likely however, that he already knew what they did. Roman tipped his hat to the pair of them a lit cigar hanging loosely from the edge of his mouth.

"Good evening my friends." He gestured to the two girls on the bed. "I must apologise, I wasn't aware little red here would react like that." He let out a small chuckle and tapped his cigar, causing ash to pool on the carpet. "And what a reaction it was too, I mean really, the kid's a monster. Forget Apep do you know how much we could make selling something like that." He pointed to the sleeping girl. Junior's brow furrowed as he looked at the man. Roman got the message quickly and put his hands up in mock surrender. "Hey, don't bite my head off for stating the truth, countries would pay millions maybe even billions for something like that, and she's only a kid!"

"She stays." The words were little more than a low grumble, but the warning practically dripped off the comment. "The Girl's been through too much, I can't put her through more. We knew the risks and we decided to take 'em". Junior would sooner shoot his own foot than entrust something like Ruby's power fall into the hands of people like Roman. For all intents and purposes Roman was useful. He was smart, he had good leads on info and was the man to go to for organising turf war, but his faith was worth the amount you paid for it, not a penny more, not a penny less. Junior didn't like involving him with something as dangerous as this, especially when he had yet to ask for anything in return, but he needed Nora to help Ruby and currently Nora's payroll came out of Roman's pocket. Changing that fact would take time and a need to build trust, so, for now at least, Roman had to remain involved. Roman shrugged noncommittally.

"Whatever ya' say boss, just thought I'd put my opinion on the table. After all, it isn't every day that deal this good is literally unconscious in front of you." He put his hat back on his head and began walking towards the far side wall. He stopped just in front of it raising a silver lighter to a new cigar as he snuffed out his old one beneath his shoe. "Oh, one last thing. Tell Jax to keep his hands off my property." He flicked the lighter closed as he uttered the veiled threat. His smile quickly returned as if nothing had happened, seamlessly sliding across his face. "Anyway, without further ado, I bid you goodnight." He seemed to disappear before their eyes as he resumed walking into the wall. There was a pregnant pause before Bart broke the silence.

"Bastard, you sure we can trust him? I know he's never crossed us before, but there's a first for everything ya' know." Junior simply nodded, he had no choice but to trust him, for now.

"Unless you can pull someone like Nora out of your ass right now, we have no choice. Hopefully she still wants to help Ruby after the whole thing. I couldn't blame if she didn't, I mean why did Ruby put a collar on her anyway?" Bart seemed to be deep in thought for a moment before replying.

"It's just a theory, with no research backing it up of course, but from what I can gather with my semblance, the collar was made with the intention of subjugating Nora and the Grimm blood she possessed. The collar was even fully aware of its purpose from the very moment it was made." Junior's eyes widened slightly at the suggestion. "Perhaps Ruby's inner Grimm wanted to assert its dominance over Nora's and vice versa, of course Nora had a lot more control over hers. To think that Ruby's won said battle despite the huge age difference speaks volumes of her potential. We can only learn more when they wake, I am afraid." Junior nodded silently again, it was true, they could theorise all they want, but at the end of the day the only way to know for sure would be to ask them. He gestured towards the door to the apartment.

"If you wanna' crash her you can, we have a spare apartment three doors down, 16B I think. It's nothing special but it's a place for you to sleep until they wake up." Bart hummed in agreement, tomorrow was a Saturday and so he wouldn't have to teach any classes, it also saved him having to deal with Glynda for another day. The thought made him recoil at the tongue lashing she would undoubtedly give him for earlier that day; stay here it was then. He made for the exit and quickly slumped into the bed he had been offered upon entering his temporary apartment. His eyes fought to a close at the warm embrace of the feather pillows, but even as the darkness of unconscious pulled him deep within, he couldn't shake the feeling he had missed something. His fatigue won out, forcing the issue to the back of his mind, he'd find out in the morning.


	6. Chapter 6

What had once been a raging storm, was now reduced to a simple drizzle. No more was the land scarred by the forked lightning that struck and abused the wet soil. No more was the neighbouring wildlife drowned beneath the endless downpour and no more did the trees bend and splinter under the wild force of the high winds. Everything was… calm, soothing even. The thunder and lightning replaced by the glow of a mildly concealed moon, the cruel deluge by the pitter-patter of frail raindrops and the howling gales by a cool morning breeze. Most importantly however, there it was. The beast that had plagued her subconscious for years. The monster who hounded at her senses, forcing each encounter with another person to be harder than it had any right to be. The strength she had called upon all too often.

The Grimm lay quietly, its fur covered stomach falling and rising slowly in its calm slumber as it unconsciously purred at the pale hand carefully dragging itself along its neck. It was unnatural; all she had ever known from the beast was bloodlust, anger and power. To see it reduced to a huge sleeping cat was unsettling. She half expected the tiger to be faking it, to be luring in the unsuspecting girl who hummed gently as she petted the beast, but it never happened, the scene simply continued to play out. She took a step forward accidentally snapping a branch she hadn't seen. The other girl noticed, as did the tiger, both turning to face her as she continued her approach. The girl wore a faint smile, it was sad, understanding… and innocent. The tiger was less inclined to be so trusting, rapidly standing and letting loose a low growl towards her as it placed itself between her and the girl.

The rain seemed to come down slightly harder, the thunder rolling in the distance serving as a clear warning. The hooded girl moved her hand to the tiger's head causing it to calm and the storm to once again subside. Nora moved to speak, but the girl raised her hand in a silent command to stop her. When the ginger obeyed, she moved her hands up to the white hood that draped over her face. Nora's eyes widened at the woman she saw beneath the cloak, dark red hair appearing almost black the closer to the roots you got, porcelain white skin framing the face that held both kindness and a quiet power that unnerved her. However, it was the silver irises, that seemed to bore into her soul as she met their gaze, that truly earned her reaction. The woman was the splitting image of what Nora imagined was what an older Ruby would look like, only with silver eyes rather than the blood red the child wore. A black rose, identical to the one ruby had worn, curled up and around her forearm, only this one had far more roses than the other.

"I know how things may seem, but I ask that you hear me out before you think too poorly of me and my sudden… intrusion." Nora straightened at the voice, it was warm, calming even, she almost let her guard down as the woman spoke, almost. The cloaked woman waved her hand to the tiger who lay down once more at the gesture, seemingly relaxing, though it never stopped looking towards Nora. She could feel a deep feeling of dread build in her stomach at the way the woman walked towards her, guard down, as if she could not possibly perceive Nora as a threat.

"Wh-who are you? Why are you here? How are you here?" she moved to continue her slew of endless questions but was abruptly halted as the woman raised a flat palm to silence her. Pools of liquid steel holding her gaze, demanding her full attention as their eyes locked. The white clad woman reached forward and placed a calming hand on each of her shoulders, bending down slightly to match eye heights.

"I cannot tell you all of those things; I only have so much time I can spare with you but, know that I mean you no harm. Okay?" Nora couldn't help but allow her shoulders to loosen at the promise, releasing a breath she had no idea she had been holding. The woman gave a small sympathetic smile as Nora nodded her affirmation. "Good. Now, the reason I am here is to explain somethings about Ruby to you. I had hoped she would be able to get used to her power a little more before encountering another Grimm blooded, but alas here we are. I am here to ask for your help. As you know Ruby has a lot of potential, a lot of power, but she is young, she is inexperienced, and I… I cannot be there to help her." She seemed to deflate slightly at the statement, as if reliving some sorrowful memory. She returned her gaze to Nora quickly, causing the girl to flinch slightly. "But you… you can. You will learn more about her power, and your own, as the pair of you grow. You'll know what I mean when you see it." Nora nodded slowly as the woman released her from both her physical and ocular grip, the warm smile returning to her features.

She slowly began walking away, seemingly disappearing into nothing with white rose petals drifting from the billowing cloak. However, she stopped beside the tiger giving it a moment of petting and attention before peering over her shoulder to Nora.

"I know this guy is scary, and doesn't know his own strength sometimes, but give him a chance, will you? Afterall, being trapped inside someone else's body and being used a glorified battery isn't the easiest life to enjoy you know. Maybe get to know him, it will make things easier for the both of you. One day you'll understand." With that, she seemed to fade, a sudden gust of wind seeming to scatter her into a million snow white petals.

* * *

Ruby awoke to the light streaking across her vision, invading the cool, blissful embrace that her slumber had provided. The white glow piercing the calming darkness, denying her the solitude she had found so much peace in. She moved a hand to shield her eyes as they slowly conceded to the blinding assault. It proved futile as the light persistently slid through the tiniest gaps between her fingers. She looked past her digits to see the window displaying the bright all-consuming light from the sun halfway to its peak in the sky. The sight numbed her aggravation at the disturbance, instead she now a mixture of awe and longing as she beheld the day star. She couldn't remember the last time she had seen the sun in the sky. Apep had kept her in a windowless cell and had taken her to Junior's in the dark veil of night. Even yesterday, when the twins had taken her and Ilia to train with Jax she had remained inside, and the curtains had been closed.

Her thoughts suddenly scrambled to life at the mention of Jax's training, the vague strands of consciousness she had retained from the haze that had overcome her when she had drawn close to Nora. Something had screamed at her to act, to fight the older girl, but she had only remembered asking it why, right before passing out. A few sights and sounds made their way to the front of her mind, blurry images of the fight that had ensued, sounds that had been drowned by her lack of focus. Her mind suddenly halted at the clear image of Nora slumped against the wall, the concrete spider-webbed with cracks, a collar gripping her throat and Ruby's own hand running along the band as if checking its quality.

She startled at a sudden movement at under the covers around her other arm. Quickly, she yanked her arm from the cover of the duvet, she paled slightly as more images came to life in her head as she beheld the black rose coiled tightly around her forearm. She recalled the feeling as it sprouted from her shadow and attached itself to her frame, carefully, almost lovingly, wrapping around her limb. It had grown each time the black mist was fed to it by the vines, and it had helped her create the collar that had been put on Nora. She reached out to touch the flower that rested its head just above her wrist, but before she could do so it produced a globule of the black substance that it had created and a thin, thorn-less vine guided it to rest in ruby's outstretched palm.

The feeling wasn't unpleasant. The globule seemed to writhe and bubble in her hand, and yet not once did it break the perfect spherical shape it had been given in, as if waiting for something, some prompt that never came. The substance was cool in her hand as it curled around itself, feeling more like thick water than the murky, mist like appearance it held. It felt strange, alien even, and yet, comfortingly familiar. She leaned in to investigate further, trying her hardest to see what may lie within the shadowy orb. A sudden gasp cast her from her fascinated stupor, and she pulled back surprise plastering itself across her features, fear lingering at the edges of her eyes as she turned to the source of the noise.

Nora shot up from her slumber, falling out of the bed as she flailed wildly, grasping at the bed for purchase. There was a thud that reverberated through the walls of the apartment as she hit the floor, groaning at the collision of her head with the carpet. The pain seemed to calm her slightly allowing her to regain her bearings and finally take in the room around her. Her eyes darted around, surveying everything from the bed to the door, before finally settling on Ruby and seeming to stare at something that wasn't there.

The door burst open at the sudden commotion Nora had created and Junior appeared in the doorway a dishevelled, half-dressed Bart peeking through a small gap between the large man and the swaying door. There was a pregnant silence as everyone took in their surroundings properly and slowly calmed down from the tension that had hung in the air. Junior spoke first as Nora picked herself off the floor groaning and nursing the back of her head.

"Good morning, how nice of you to join us." He realised as he spoke that the lighthearted comment probably sounded rather intimidating, especially to the smaller girl who had little to no interaction with him yet. It was at this moment that Bart spotted the globule in Ruby's palm and seemed to practically teleport over to her in barely contained curiosity. Junior moved to reassure the girls of the situation but was immediately interrupted by the intrigued professor.

"Oh my… What… What is this? I have never seen the likes of it before, and yet it seems oddly familiar." He thought out loud leaning in perhaps a bit too close his shirtless body coming within inches or Ruby's face as he eccentrically rambled to himself. Then something seemed to come to him. "Wait! Could this be what you made the collar out of?" He pointed a finger towards the ball before making to poke it, just as before the vines wrapped around Ruby's forearm lashed out and nearly separated the finger from his hand. Luckily, he withdrew in time and the danger had only doubled his curiosity. "Interesting…" he trailed off perhaps finishing the sentence in his head. Junior coughed to grab the man's attention. The green haired professor peered over his shoulder as Junior repeated the process until he got a reaction.

"Why don't we talk over breakfast?" he levelled a stare at Bart trying to subtly hint that he should get dressed, but the historian simply nodded, oblivious to his state of undress. He was by no means thin or frail looking, in fact most may find his physique quite a pleasant sight, his hunter training having demanded him to be fit and strong. The smell, however, was a different story, he still hadn't showered in several days and the stench was evidently strong enough to cause ruby to pull back a bit. He had been about to have a shower at Junior's request, when the thumping of Nora's awakening shook the walls of the apartment.

"Why don't you two get into some better clothes and meet us in the kitchen in ten?" he received a pair of slow nods, Junior tried to lift the mood, and though he didn't smile he let out a small chuckle as he spoke. "Don't worry Miltia's cooking and I'm sure Ruby will tell you, but there ain't anyone better at cooking a morning fry up then that girl." With a slight smile the girls nodded again, and he closed the door behind him as he left, quietly pleased with his progress. The room was once again silent as the girls turned their attention towards each other. Ruby made to talk and apologies, but Nora raised a hand and spoke first, seemingly reading her mind.

"Don't worry about our little scuffle yesterday, I should have known that you couldn't suppress your Grimm's influence yet. Being so close to me probably set alarm bells off for it, hell, if hadn't dealt with it for years then I would have been the same." She absently pulled at the band around her throat. "Though I have to say that the collar was a bit excessive." She yanked at it to pull it off but just ended up dragging her nails down her throat as it dodged her grip and tightened slowly as she persisted her attempts. Her breathing became laboured until eventually she stopped, and its grip loosened, once more allowing air into her lungs.

Ruby looked slightly horrified at the display, to think she had created that collar, had put it on her, and yet she had no idea what it was or how to remove it. Nora recovered, pulling herself up and stabilising herself as she took deep restorative breaths. Ruby subconsciously prepared for the girl's wrath that she may direct at her, closing her eyes in anticipation. It never came, instead she felt a sudden warmth envelope her and opened her eyes to see a mop of thick ginger hair as her face was pressed into the crook of Nora's neck. Nora gently ran a hand down the back of Ruby's head in an attempt to comfort the girl.

"It's okay, I know you didn't mean it; I lost control of my power my first time too, everybody does." Nora pulled away looking deep into Ruby's eyes as she knelt at face level. "You should have seen me when I went through it, all electronics in a five mile radius were completely fried, and everything within a mile of me had been completely vaporised." Nora wore a small smile, as if reminiscing on a fond memory, though Ruby could not gather what she was thinking about. Nora continued. "All things considered, you handled it very well. We may not know what your powers are yet, but maybe Bart could help us with that." As if on que a knock sounded at the door, Junior's husky voice rumbled from the now slightly ajar door.

"I don't mean to be rude, but Bart seems to have arrived at some conclusion and insists you hurry up. Whilst he isn't going to do anything if you take your time, for the sake of my sanity I ask you don't take too much longer." He closed the door quietly as if afraid to create too much noise in the sensitive environment. As the hinges slotted back into place Nora turned to Ruby, chuckling slightly as she stood up right and helped Ruby to do the same. The black substance seemed to slowly filter itself back into the flower on ruby's arm as she closed her fist, she hadn't intended to dismiss it, but was happy she had managed to.

"Let's not keep the big man waiting, shall we?" Nora's grin was genuine as she managed to pluck a small giggle from the younger girl. She didn't know why the white woman wanted her to watch over Ruby but, after so long of thinking she was the only remaining non-royal Grimm-blooded, she wasn't about to pass up this chance. Besides the woman said she might grow stronger from the experience, and she owed Jax a rematch.

* * *

Bart was positively thrumming with energy and excitement at his apparent discovery. Melanie was nursing a headache beside him, having spent most of the previous night trying to calm Ilia down. The young chameleon girl had been terrified, as the girl she had thought harmless had suddenly began throwing Nora around the room in a display she hadn't previously thought possible. Luckily exhaustion had coaxed the Faunas into sleep after a few hours, but Melanie hadn't been so lucky. She had been about to nod off when Miltia came in exclaiming that Ruby and Nora had woken up, she had loudly complained but wasn't about to miss the occasion.

Miltia was now sliding sizzling rashers of bacon and large juicy sausages onto the six plates that had been set out at the glass-topped kitchen table. She had managed to get a few hours of sleep after having taken the girls back to their currently shared room, though Junior had woken her up saying something about her position being bad for her neck and she went to her bedroom instead. She couldn't go back to sleep again however, so instead took an hour-long shower and a long smoke on the balcony hanging out from her apartment. One might find it odd that it was Miltia that was underage smoking rather than Melanie, but she had gained the unfortunate habit when Mavis had gotten drunk once and offered her one. She didn't see the issue, there were many things in life that people did to get past stress, they drunk, they had sex, the list went on. This was simply her vice; one she had found herself needing more in recent days. She wouldn't let her sister or Junior find out if she could help it, but Mavis and Jax knew, often buying her packets or joining her on long business nights.

She looked down at the displayed plates on the table. Despite there only being six plates there were seven people seated at the table. This was because Melanie had refused food, saying something about a diet and simply returning to nursing her aching temples. Miltia had given her a displeased look, knowing full well that Melanie worried about her weight too much, most girls their age would kill for the figure the two of them shared, and it was worrying to see her so conscious about it. She sent her a mental prod, but it was promptly ignored as Melanie gazed intently at the table.

Despite Bart practically swaying in his seat as he tapped at keys on his laptop, anticipation rolling off him like an odour, it was Jax who spoke up first after Ruby and Nora sat down.

"So, uh… what happened? I know the legends and the stories, but I'm sure that there are a lot of things in those wives-tales that aren't accurate so if you wouldn't mind enlightening us." He gestured with is hands towards Nora and Bart. The ginger opened her mouth to speak but was abruptly interrupted by the eccentric green haired man.

"Indeed, the tales actually stray quite far from the truth. The Branwen family have been rather thorough in their elimination of the Grimm blood method, however no great secret can be kept from the eyes of time." He tapped his spectacles at his statement. "Whereas the Branwens would have us believe that their current method is much safer and equally as rewarding, this is untrue, if my research is correct. Which it is." He took a large sip of his coffee as a small break before continuing. "Whilst it is true, the method is safer, and at the time of its creation just as effective, this has since ceased to be the case. You see the Grimm blood serves as a catalyst, which they replace with months of harsh training, however since the creation of the new method the hunting of Grimm has ceased from the Branwen family. As many of us know Grimm grow exponentially more powerful as they age, and throughout recorded history one has never died from age, potentially hinting at near immortality. Due to this factor any Grimm blood procured in the modern time has a chance of being much, much stronger than it was in the past." He paused for both effect and to allow his listeners to take in the information. After the long silence he continued, once more taking a hefty slurp from his mug.

"This information seems fine and all, but I'm sure that you are asking yourselves 'what does this mean?', to that I am going to tell you that it means… we are in much deeper shit then we originally thought." He went to take another hit of his coffee only to find it empty, he frowned slightly but quickly realised the attention still placed on him and so continued. "The reason for this being, that young Miss Rose here obviously has the blood of a Grimm that is centuries older than the last one used for the ritual. Nora is less likely to have this sort of blood since she was blooded in a place where Grimm were still hunted, meaning that there is a lower chance that they had grown much. Whilst her power is certainly impressive, and she has defiantly been gifted with possibly the oldest Grimm from the area, however it pales in comparison to whatever Ruby has." He gestured to the collar around Nora's neck. "I mean, it literally forced Nora's Grimm into submission, and Ruby is twelve years younger. Another thing that lends to this theory is what I saw when I touched the collar. It _is_ a Grimm. A very young Grimm, not even a day old, but nevertheless it is a Grimm. It thinks, feels, moves and even feeds. Ruby _made_ a Grimm; not even fully aware she was doing so either." He moved over to his laptop and tapped a few keys before flipping it to face the centre of the table. On the illuminated screen it showed an old drawing of a wolf like creature, that stood on its hind legs, clawing itself out of a small pool of black.

"That hasn't happened since the very creation of Grimm. For a long time, it was unknown how Grimm came about. Many religions painted them as various spirits or symbols from whatever God they believed in, but none ever seemed coherent scientifically. Eventually we concluded Grimm are born out of pure emotion, specifically negative ones, fear, anger, hunger etc… I would say Ruby's abilities confirms that theory. You see the only memories the collar had, before Nora, was pain and regret, along with other negative emotions. So, I believe that Ruby managed to somehow extract negative emotions from Nora in their little fight and used them to create the collar, and later the globule that we saw in her with in her room." He reached over to where Jax was sitting and swiped the mug that lay in front of him and took a large swig from the contents. Jax would normally protest but was deep in thought and listening intently. Miltia spoke up next.

"Okay… So, Ruby's Grimm is super strong, so what? How does this make things worse for us? If anything, surely, it's a good thing, now we know in a few years, when she's been trained, she should be next to unstoppable, surely that gives us more bargaining power with the Branwens." Melanie nodded beside her; headache forgotten. Junior cut in as Bart took lengthy gulps of coffee.

"No. What it means is that if the Branwens that work under Raven or the Xiao-Longs find out that she survived their little plan, they will want to kill her even more. What's worse than having someone between you and the throne? Someone that will grow to be far stronger than you, between you and the throne." There was a pregnant silence as everyone slowly agreed with the point he offered. He turned to Bart in an attempt to get conversation going again, the sombre silence unnerving him slightly. "Did you manage to see what her Grimm was with your semblance?" Bart met his gaze defeat clear in his drooping brow.

"I am afraid not. It wouldn't let me look deeper into it, I'm not even sure her creations know what she is. Simply referring to her as their queen." Ruby visibly flinched at the word, trembling slightly. Nora placed a hand on her shoulder and she visibly calmed but was still noticeably on edge. Nora decided it best to talk now that Bart had finally ran out of answers.

"Last night, in my dream, a woman came to me. My Grimm, which I often see in my dreams, was submitting to her, and when I drew close it threatened me before she eventually calmed it. It was willing to harm me, and by extension itself, before it would allow me to even think of attacking her. She was a bit scary but seemed to have good intentions. She wanted me to look after Ruby." Again, the room returned to silence as everybody pondered on the new information.

Junior, in particular, was deep in thought. On one hand, it was a good thing that Nora seemed to be at least trying to grow close to Ruby, and now seemed to have more reason to, the more the two grew close the less likely Nora was to betray them at Roman's request should he order it. However, on the other much larger hand, this meant that Ruby would also be getting closer with her and potentially Nora may convince her that she would be better off with her and Roman rather than his group. He knew that it was unlikely, Nora didn't seem to be the deceptive type, but if Roman ordered her, she may owe him enough to do it. In Vale, in the shady parts of town, debts didn't go unpaid. If you didn't pay a debt, and managed to survive doing so, your chance at future business was long dead. No one did business with a cheat, if you didn't want to do what they asked then you had to find a way to fulfil their ask without dirtying your hands, but the debtor would get what they wanted. It was one of the reasons that everybody payed in full, even the smallest debt could turn into being coerced into something most wouldn't want to do. His thoughts were disrupted by Jax.

"Okay, so why not just use Bart's semblance on Ruby?" The question seemed valid and all heads in the room turned to Bart as he finished another mug of coffee and reached to 'commandeer' Melanie's. She swatted his hand away and took a large swig herself before he noticed the attention on him. He cleared his throat at being caught before speaking.

"Whilst I would like to agree with you, I am afraid doing so will not likely present many answers, but I can certainly try. You see I can only see things that the object I'm looking through remembers. I know it seems odd considering inanimate objects do not have memories but hear me out. Inanimate objects do not have brains or minds they 'remember' the world around them only through sense data, whilst they cannot sense anything themselves, I lend them my senses in order to almost recount what has happened around them. The difference between that and a living creature is that they have a way that they perceive the world around them, for instance things they are unaware of, I cannot see happening through their memories. So, in this case, Ruby was likely very young when she experienced anything of value, therefore her infantile understanding of what was happening around her will be of little use." He paused looking sympathetic towards the small girl. "I can certainly try though."

Ruby look up at Nora and then the twins, all three nodded at her giving supportive smiles to the best of their abilities. She swallowed hard, making an audible sound as she nodded her assent to the eccentric man. He grinned widely, no malice showing, simply happiness that she had allowed him to do so.

"Thank you Ruby." He offered her his hand across the table. She hesitated, receiving one last push of courage from the girls sat around her, before reaching forward and taking his hand.

Bart struggled as he plunged into Ruby's memories, each turn drew his interest like the call of a siren, promising more information to anything he may ask of the girl. The swirl of colour that was the rapidly changing scene through her eyes flooded his vision, his head spun as time itself reversed before him, degrading from the clear perception she now possessed to a slowly blurring image of the world she had lived in. One issue with his semblance was that he struggled to tell the difference between himself and the thing he was watching from until he left the memories. This meant unpleasant memories were memories he tried his hardest to avoid if necessary, but as he swam through her mind, nothing felt safe.

His stomach had churned at the scenes with Apep, flinching at each and every strike that he threw towards them. Another man he did not know appeared, he looked to be Atlesian in nationality, the pale skin and white hair along with the frosty background giving him away slightly. He recoiled as the man brought down a short three tailed whip across their back, a silent shout left his mouth as the memory continued. They rapidly glanced around, noting the long lines of children, wearing little more than rags, being filed into large wooden cages in the back of an airship. The vision once again shifted, colours dimming as their grasp on certainty diminished. They halted their decent on a flash of white, which Ruby had clearly tried her hardest to preserve.

The edges of the scene had blurred slightly, adding extra realness as the memory played out. There standing over them was a woman, red haired, pale skinned and wearing a pair of striking silver eyes. She wore a pristine hooded white cloak with identically coloured fur around the edges of the hood that draped over her face. She seemed rushed, saying something that they couldn't hear, tears streaming down the sides of her eyes. The door behind them burst open revealing a small squad of men clad in white marine armour. The woman whirled on them, something in her eyes changing from a deep sadness and despair to an unbridled rage.

The fight that ensued had been quick, brutal and hard for Ruby's infantile senses to keep track of, simply noticing as the crimson splashes run up the walls. The woman let out a fatigued breath and slowly turned around. She was bleeding along her palm from where she had caught a knife with her hand, but instead of cover it up she instead raised her palm to their mouth. At first, they did nothing, but muffled sounds in the backgrounds forced the woman to speed up, squeezing her wound to make it bleed more and forcing it against their lips. They reflexively opened their mouth and the woman wasted no time rubbing the blood against the tongue that protruded. They swallowed and the memory blurred further, the blood seemingly almost forcing them to sleep.

They woke up quickly, finding themselves in another memory, they were being carried by a large, muscular blonde man. A goatee dangled slightly in their face as they took in his features. His arms laced with tattoos of black and yellow flames that seemed to lick at his form as he jogged through the empty street. He wore a pair of deep blue eyes which scanned the nearby alleys as he stopped before one and turned to reveal a man they recognised as Apep, alongside the man with the whip from before. A silent exchange of words ensued before eventually the blonde man shook Apep's hand and passed their near unconscious body over to Apep's companion. The man abruptly turned and left, not once looking behind him as he left them with the trafficker.

Bart and Ruby gasped simultaneously as they pulled themselves out of the last salvageable memory. Both panted for a few moments; the experience exhausting for them, Bart for using his semblance and Ruby from reliving her past in just a few moments. They looked around to a mixture of concerned and expecting gazes from around the table before they looked at each other. Bart spoke first, heavy, laboured breathing between sentences.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that." He managed to catch his breath and look sympathetically at the young girl's life he had just watched. She met his look and slowly nodded before letting her gaze fall to the table in reverent thought. Bart decided it best to address the onlookers at this moment.

"It would seem that there is little that Ruby knows of her past. However, there are titbits of information that may help figure somethings out going forward." The table remained silent as they waited with bated breath for him to continue." First off, it seems that Ruby was fed someone else's blood before Apep managed to get his hands on her. This person in question had silver eyes, hair similar to Ruby's own and a white cloak." Nora visibly flinched at the mention of the individual who had appeared in her dreams, however, she remained silent, eager to get everything Bart knew about the situation first. "Secondly, it would seem someone most of us would be very familiar with handed Ruby over to Apep. Taiyang Xiao-Long, did it himself." Jax slammed the table with his fists, causing it to groan from the pressure, cracks sliding along the shape of his fists.

"What!?" His tone was sharp and venomous, most at the table reared away as he seethed. Jax didn't get mad often, preferring instead to make a fool out of any who pissed him off, but on occasion someone overstepped their bounds and the man of steel would become as fearsome as his name suggested. Junior had the unfortunate pleasure of being the one who had to stop him killing a man once, he had stepped between the two, but Jax had already thrown a punch, semblance on, which abruptly connected with Junior's jaw. He had broken his jaw, which had taken three months to heal and it was still numb for a number of weeks afterwards.

There was little that could piss him off like this. Junior could only think of three things. The first, was threatening his friends and family, few got away with even suggesting of doing any harm to the club members, none with trying to follow through on said threats. The second, was if he lost or almost lost a fight. He was a sore looser and didn't take it well when faced with the possibility that he might not win a fight. The final one was the Xiao-Long family. Honestly it had been a miracle that he had kept his cool in the meeting with the others when the Xiao-Long name had been thrown around. However, Taiyang was a specific case. Taiyang managed to tick all three boxes. He was obviously a Xiao-Long, heir to family in fact, his father currently sat as the head. By extension he had also threatened his family, as the Xiao-Longs had been responsible for the shutdown of the orphanage they had all belonged to. The orphanage had been hit as collateral damage from a fight between two Xiao-Longs, the sisters and volunteers who worked there had been unable to pay for repairing the damages and were too scared to ask the big family for compensation.

It was the second issue that had hit Jax the most though. He had sworn, since the orphanage shut down, to get stronger, to show the Xiao-Longs that they weren't untouchable. At first it had gone well; his reputation grew in his late teens and he began to gather respect as a fighter after years of training and fighting. He had been on a winning streak at the time, not as long as his current streak, but at the time it had been unheard of for a street rat to manage to climb that high in the rankings. However, one day Taiyang had shown up at his regular fight spot and challenged Jax to a fight, having heard of the man of steel making waves in fight pits. To say the fight had been one sided was to put it lightly. Taiyang hadn't broken a sweat when throwing Jax around like an amateur, taunting and disrespecting him long after the match should have officially ended. The blonde hadn't even used his semblance. The referee had been way too scared of the man to stop him, and probably wouldn't have anyway. Since that day Jax had trained twice as hard, in order to kick Taiyang's ass the next time they fought. He had yet to get the chance.

"Your telling me, that bastard did this?! To her?! All for some petty power play for the throne?! I'll kill him!" They all watched as his arms slowly shifted into metal, his semblance losing control in his rage. The table further protested as the weight grew heavier by the moment. "When I find him, I'll…"

"Jax! Enough!" The command shook the room. Beside Jax Junior had risen to his full height, now looming over everybody in the room with his massive figure. His cold grey eyes had adopted the steel they often wore when conducting business, authority dripping from his gaze as he looked down at his employee and friend. "You're scaring the girl!" Jax's attention snapped to the eight-year-old girl who was trembling slightly from the display of rage the others had put on. He forgot his rage, semblance disappearing once more, as he slowly sat back down and quietly apologised to the girl. Junior let out a strained breath and allowed his posture to slacken as he took a seat himself, gesturing for Bart and Nora to continue where they could. Bart seemed unfazed by the display simply finishing Melanie's coffee she had left unguarded whilst watching the scene play out.

"Indeed, it seems our… acquaintance from the family has some role to play in this. How he managed to get a hold on Ruby we do not know, as she was knocked out after consuming the blood. By what we cannot tell" He placed the empty mug down, scanning for another but not finding one. He frowned but continued speaking. "I cannot tell you the significance of the blood that Ruby ingested, but the woman seemed eager to make sure she drank it. Going so far as to practically force it down her throat." Nora decided it best to speak up.

"You said she wore a white cloak and had silver eyes?" She looked directly at Bart who quickly nodded at the physical description, brewing and pouring some more coffee at the kitchen counter as he did so. Nora swallowed quietly as she spoke. "That's the woman from the dream. I don't know who she is, but maybe she has something to do with Ruby's Grimm?" Bart sprayed the piping hot liquid he had been drinking all over the back of Jax as he heard her speak. Despite the pissed look he received from Jax he seemed lost in his own world.

"Of course…" he mumbled "We've never seen Ruby's Grimm, but we know it is ancient and unique. Summer Rose has been missing for years and as rumoured to be able to fight toe to toe with even any of the Branwens and come out on top. And the woman appeared to Nora after Ruby managed to subjugate her Grimm with the collar. It all makes sense, she fed Ruby her blood and was there right before she got taken by Taiyang." His eyes were wide, and he stared blankly at the young girl. Melanie grew tired of his mumbling.

"What? Is there something we've missed?" Bart ignored her, downing the remainder of the steaming black coffee as he did so before speaking.

"The woman is Summer Rose… and she was a Grimm…" It was said quietly, and it took a whole minute for the information to seemingly sink in with the others. Bart looked back to Ruby. "That would make Ruby a half Grimm, and Summer is Ruby's active Grimm. This explains so much. Why Ruby has so much power, she has essentially two Grimm, herself and Summer." He looked over to Nora. "It also explains why she is appearing in your dreams controlling your tiger." The room took a collective gulp as they processed the information. He flicked his gaze to Hei. "Hei, there is no way we can contain this information. The moment a Branwen sees her and finds out the truth, if Raven finds out, she will stop at nothing." He ran his gaze through the room quickly checking for something before he turned to Nora again. He pulled a handgun from bag that sat beside him. She froze, the room suddenly tensing. "Roman CANNOT find out about this, it's bad enough what he already knows, but if he learns about this, we won't be able to pay him off. Ruby was already bordering on priceless, but now she is worth a literal throne." Nora nodded slowly, causing him to lower the barrel. "Hei, we cannot waste more time. We have to train her and teach her everything we can. We can try our hardest to give her what's left of a childhood, but we have to be careful. No more third parties, no more outside help and NO more Roman." Junior blanched.

"We need Nora though; without her we can't teach Ruby about her powers." Bart waved him off, decidedly done with remaining neutral on the matter. The green haired historian turned to Nora and pinned her with his gaze.

"Whatever you owe Roman, consider it a cleared debt." When she looked at him confused, he turned back Junior. "I'll dig up some dirt on him, it won't be hard, the man is filthy. Simply we threaten to go public with what we know on him. Nora then works for us and between all of us we prepare Ruby as best we can for as long as we can. Meanwhile I'll try and get in touch with Qrow." Jax looked sceptical, knowing Roman wouldn't like this change of events. He was not as powerful as the club but was no small time criminal or gang leader either, only coming up a little short.

"Are you sure you want to piss of Roman like that? I mean, he isn't going to take this lying down. Besides, what if he tells the Branwens and Xiao-Longs?" Bart moved to reply but it was junior or cut in first.

"No, he's right, Roman we can handle. He isn't likely to go to the families as they'll want Ruby dead, it would be much more profitable for him to sell her to another kingdom as a weapon. We will have to be on our guard, but if we play it right, we should be fine" He sighed, drinking from his coffee which amazingly Bart hadn't swiped. "We can only hope so anyway." He turned finally to Ruby trying his hardest to appear as comforting as he could muster, actually letting a smile grace his lips. "For her sake." Ruby returned the small smile, not fully understanding what everyone was talking about, but recognising the friendly gesture. For moment Junior felt warm as he beheld the girl, still able to smile, even after all she had been through in her short life, and how much more she would likely go through in the future. A moment he hoped would last at least a little while longer.


	7. Chapter 7

Autumn was a truly mesmerising time of year in Vale. Fiery red leaves would fall to the floor, covering pavement and road alike, as if enveloping the land itself in a warm, damp embrace that the season was known for. The wind would bite into exposed flesh but, unlike the unforgiving winter, amounted to no more than a nibble that served as an almost friendly reminder to wear more layers in future. Days grew shorter and nights grew longer, the moon and stars visible as early as five o'clock and the sun seemingly only out for a scant few hours before deciding to head to its resting point beyond the opposite horizon.

The people of Vale were often considered to be some of the most well off in all of the world. Unlike Vacuo or Atlas, the terrain was hospitable all year round, consisting of mostly grassland and forests outside the city itself. It also was the second best internationally for its technology, with only Atlas pulling ahead. There was public healthcare and there was next to no limits to what one could achieve so long as they abide by the law.

However, what she liked about Vale the most was this particular establishment. Beacon Huntsmen and Huntress Academy, the pride and joy of Vale and the most prestigious academy in the whole world. Her uncle taught here and had often told her many wondrous stories about the happenings and deeds that happened within its walls. He would always seem tired from returning, complaining of being over worked, but he never once bad mouthed the establishment itself, more often than not blaming his boss for anything that was ailing him instead. She could hardly blame him. After all, he had basically been the academy's only history professor and on top of that had taught her in what little free time he actually had. She had made sure to not waste his tutoring, for no reason other than respect for his efforts and all the work he did.

She stood before the central building, waiting in line to participate in the entrance exam. Her sisters had all already had their tests, having all been accepted earlier that week. Waiting in line wasn't quite right she supposed, considering she was the only person currently in said line, or ever had been as far as she could tell. She understood why, she was attempting to apply to the academy two years early at the young age of almost sixteen. Anyone could enter at any age above eighteen, but students were rarely accepted who were any younger. So of course, her exam had been scheduled at a different time to everyone else, having to do extra to prove that she could enter ahead of her age. Her uncle had been responsible for allowing her to even attempt to enter, using his sway within the institution to earn her some extra attention from the headmaster.

She had just taken the written exam, feeling confident that she had aced it, her uncle, even being as erratic as he was, was the best teacher she could ask for and so most of what the paper covered she had considered to be simple, with little actually requiring her to think too hard. Said 'line' she had been told to wait in by the deputy headmistress was in front of a large pair of dark oak doors with a glass sign attached to the wall with the words 'Combat Hall' stating what lay behind. Said teacher had disappeared nearly half an hour ago into the room and since no sound had escaped. She had almost considered checking to see if she was still alive, but heeded her uncles warning about the woman and resulted to kicking a small stone around instead. Ten or so minutes later the blonde teacher stepped from the doors and gestured for her to enter. She obeyed but let her curiosity get the better of her as she walked.

"So, what am I supposed to do?" The question sounded innocent and yet the teacher frowned and pointedly ignored it, she could practically hear the _humph_ that would make the woman seem like little more than a petty character from a movie. She decided not to prod further, instead taking in the room around her. It was tall, constructed mostly out of white stone with a large circular stage in the centre. Flood lights illuminated the stage and seating area which surrounded the stage from all directions. There were no windows, but natural light was peeking in through the roof that seemed it could be closed and opened as dictated by whoever was using it. A large projector screen was pressed against the far wall and displayed an icon of her along with displaying beside it her current vitals. She stared wide eyed at the technology that must have been used in order to monitor her from a distance, but was interrupted by the harsh, unforgiving voice of the teacher.

"Miss Rose if you would please stop gawking and get up on the stage, then perhaps we could get your combat exam under way." Ruby bit back a retort. She knew the woman didn't like her, after all she came to the academy to apply two years early on her uncle's request no doubt thinking her nothing more than some street rat in way over her head. Ruby wasn't used to being talked down to, she had dealt with her fair share of assholes whilst working for her family, but it wasn't often someone forgot of the consequences of messing around with her family. She decided to let the underhanded comment slide and rolled her neck and back in response. It was a habit her uncle Jax had dropped off on her, truth be told it didn't do anything, but the dull aching pain from doing so helped her keep focus before a fight. Fighting was something she was used to.

She had sparred with her sisters, uncles, aunts and even Junior himself on several occasions. At first, she had been hesitant to fight, but had soon become enraptured by the displays of skill just as her sisters had before her. It helped that she was a bit of a weapons nut, finding each unique mechanism and weapon extremely fascinating. Her sisters often teased her about adopting uncle Bart's eccentricity when she spoke of weapons, but she couldn't deny his addiction to coffee had rubbed off on her, though perhaps not as drastic as his own affliction, she could consume litres without even being remotely fazed. Her reminiscing was interrupted as a figure walked in from the door on the opposite side of the symmetrical room, walking onto the stage with an air of confidence Ruby couldn't help but be irked by.

The figure belonged to a tall blonde boy with a long, thin tail swaying nonchalantly behind him as he approached. He wore a white button-up shirt that was completely undone showing off his toned abs, which he was clearly proud of, and blue jean shorts that ended just below his knees. He was smirking as he approached seemingly happy with himself about something and not at all taking this seriously. Due to the fact that she was being monitored, Ruby kept her opinion of him to herself but let her displeasure show on her face. He seemed like the type to flaunt himself around like a God-given gift, honestly, she couldn't see what was so great. Even his six pack was far from the best she had seen, growing up around Nora and Jax had made sure she was practically immune to people peacocking their fitness around. Melanie had said that she needed to not compare people to the crazy standards of their family. She had simply waved her off and said to let her have her own say in who she showed interest in. Glynda cut in again.

"Miss Rose, this is Sun Wukong, a second year here at this academy and one of the best in his year in combat. You will have five minutes to do as well as you can against him and will be graded accordingly on your performance. Understood?" The tone used made it clear that, whether or not Ruby had understood, she would move on anyway and so Ruby simply nodded turning to face her opponent. "Good, the timer on the screen will count down from twenty, the match will begin then. Good luck." Ruby had to stifle her response at Glynda's clearly forced encouragement, now she understood entirely what uncle Bart had been on about. Instead she straightened and stretched as the timer ticked down on the far wall.

Sun looked mostly bored but lowered his stance and pulled a large staff off his back, giving it an exaggerated twirl as the last few second went by. Ruby inwardly groaned and lowered her stance, setting her footing, but not drawing her own weapon. It was just a simple dagger, nothing fancy about it. In her family they all received a personalised weapon from Junior and Jax on their sixteenth birthday, hers being in just a week, so for now she was using just a stock standard dagger that Jax had taught her to use. However, she did not expect to draw it here. Uncle Bart had emphasised the importance of making a spectacle and showing off, after all, Glynda was going to be as harsh as possible with marking her performance. The buzzer went off indicating the start of the match, Sun immediately lunged forward.

Ruby admitted his form wasn't bad, his back was straight, his knees bent, and shoulders properly set as he swung wide in an attempt to offset her balance. However, he paled in comparison to Jax and Nora. Ruby bent backwards beneath the swing rolling back and kicking out at his exposed midriff as she vaulted. He stumbled back, clearly surprised at the manoeuvre. He recovered quickly, changing his grip on his staff to that similar to how one would hold a spear, throwing numerous quick jabs. None found purchase as she danced and weaved through each strike. Truth be told, she intentionally missed opportunities to counterattack flaunting her dodging ability to aggravate him as much as possible. She knew she wasn't the heaviest girl in the world and lacked the ability to land any real damage with kicks and punches to someone with a size advantage like Sun had. However, she could pretend, make him become reckless and maybe over-commit.

For about a minute their game of cat and mouse continued before he finally slipped up. He let put a low growl as he made a wild arcing swing aimed at her midsection. She used her semblance to disappear and reappear behind him, causing him to overextend and stumble from the missed swing. Ruby took the opportunity, raising her leg to execute an axe kick to his lower back, using the momentum from her fall from a few feet off the ground to apply extra force. The boy grunted in pain and was sent sprawling a few feet before righting himself and facing her once again. It was her turn to wear the smug expression, anger clear on his face. He decided to let his feelings be known.

"Cheap trick broad. Well two can play at that game." He clapped his hands together over his chest causing a small white glow to spread across his form before, suddenly, beside him appeared another figure that looked exactly like him. Both Suns readied themselves to rush Ruby as she realised this must be his semblance. A dangerous one it was too, if she had been anyone else, it may have proven insurmountable. However, two on ones were something she was used to, having to spar with the twins a lot in recent years. No matter how much control he had over his clone he would never be able to match the coordination that they possessed. The left Sun rushed her aiming high and jumping for extra force whilst the other ran just behind him preparing to answer her attempt to dodge.

One thing Jax had taught her about fighting two on one was to as much as possible prevent them from being either side of you. This was obviously his plan, even if she could dodge this attack then the first Sun would end up on her other side and suddenly, she would have to fight on two sides. The staff made things harder as well as she would struggle to isolate one of the Suns as he could always keep her at the reach of the staff. She smirked as the bo-staff descended towards her. It seems he had already forgotten her semblance, jumping was a mistake.

Once more she vanished, much to the chagrin of the Suns, only to reappear with feet planted on the back of the airborne Sun. There was a loud, hollow thump as his body hit the floor, his face connecting with the marble floor hard. The body quickly disappeared as its threshold of damage had evidently been hit. Ruby looked expectantly over to the remaining Sun to see a growl forming on his lips. So much for his big reveal.

He lunged, giving in to his anger at her dismissal of his semblance. She closed the gap, deciding the fight had drawn out long enough, reappearing inside his guard and delivering a swift knee to his gut. He lurched forward from the blow allowing her to flip him over her shoulder and pry his staff from his grip. There was another thud as his back hit the floor, blasting the wind from his lungs. He looked up through blurred vision to see Ruby standing over him with his own staff pointed at his face and her foot on his chest. He begrudgingly tapped the floor three times, signalling his surrender and looked up at the timer to realise she still had a minute and a half left.

Ruby dropped the staff beside the boy and looked over to Glynda who was watching wide eyed and mouth agape at the spectacle that had just taken place. The blonde couldn't believe it, she had defeated a second year with four hits, and hadn't even drawn a weapon. She noticed the gaze of Ruby and quickly shook herself from her stupor in an attempt to regain her control over the situation. She had intended for Ruby to lose to Sun or maybe stall out the timer at best, but to beat him so handily was astounding. She may have a grudge against Bart, but she could not even remotely begin to criticise the performance, Ruby clearly having had everything within control from the very beginning, even when she was on the back foot. She cleared her throat, partially for attention and partially to give her another moment to think.

"Congratulations Miss Rose, that was an admirable performance. Your score shall be recorded and tallied with your other test scores. I believe you have no further tests, so you may leave the premises at your leisure, your scores and potential acceptance letter will be distributed within the next week." With that she quickly exited the room with Sun in tow, groaning from his aching head, leaving Ruby alone with her thoughts.

When the door creaked closed, Ruby pulled out her phone and scrolled through her contacts until she found a picture of Nora doing push-ups with a young Ruby and Ilia on her back. She smiled at the memory that rose to the front of her mind before dialling the contact. The phone rang for about a minute before it was picked up, ragged breaths punctuating the start of the call.

"Hello?" To her surprise the voice was male, and familiar.

"Uncle Jax?" She tried to hide her wicked glee from the revelation.

"Oh, hey squirt, what's up?" The question was asked genuinely as if he didn't realise the conundrum. Ruby grinned mischievously.

"Oh nothing, just calling to see what time Nora was gonna come pick me up. Do you think you could find out for me?" She rested her hand over her mouth to halt any snickers that may escape.

"Ah, well you see, you should probably call her to ask that, not sure I can be of much help there squirt." The sentence was said without hesitation, but Ruby could tell it was forced.

"Yes, well you see, that was my original plan, but imagine my surprise when her _boyfriend_ picked up instead. I just hope I didn't interrupt anything." Jax seemed to choke on something on the other side of the call before replying.

"Yes, I can imagine that must have been rather awkward, but I guess you are going to have to call again slightly later." He managed to keep his tone flat, but his words were becoming faster as he struggled to keep his story together.

"Okay. Just, do you think you could hand Nora her phone back now, that way she may actually manage to answer me." She heard raucous laughter from somewhere in the background on Jax's side the call along with several ' _I told you'_ statements. Ruby failed to hold back her own giggles as she heard Jax reply.

"Shit. Well ya got us squirt, just don't tell the others okay?" Ruby struggled to breathe as she laughed before replying.

"Oh, I don't know, how much will ya give me?" It was Jax who let out a low few laughs now.

"The cheek of the youth these days, honestly. How about I don't tell Ilia you've been dating her best friend for the last three months? Seem fair?" Ruby stopped laughing suddenly challenge entering her tone.

"You wouldn't dare." Jax only chuckled some more, she imagined Nora did too at her expense in the background.

"Oh, I would, and you know it." Ruby sighed at his statement; he was right. _Damn him._

"Fine, but can Nora come get me, I'd rather not be stuck at Beacon for hours on end." Ruby drawled as she walked out of the room and into the courtyard, which was currently empty aside from herself.

"Yeah she's coming squirt." Ruby giggled.

"Eww, too much info." After a short pause Jax coughed at the comment and Nora broke out laughing again.

"Ruby! You know I didn't me…" he was cut off by Ruby's own laughter, trying her hardest to contain a slight snort as her breath became ragged. "One of these days…" He was again cut off.

"Yeah, yeah, you'll have enough, and it won't be so funny anymore. We've heard it all before old man." She heard a defeated sigh from the other side the line and decided to poke one last bit of fun at the brawler. "So uhm… who lasted longer?" The question was abrupt and quick, nut she could make out Nora struggling for air as she laughed. Jax remained silent not responding for a full minute. "I'll take that as my answer. If you see her could you guys tell Mavis she owes me fifty Lien."

"You kids are something else ya know that?" He sounded slightly depressed, but a hint of mirth filled his tone.

"Love ya too." Ruby said in a teasing tone.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you do. Nora says she'll be there in thirty. See ya." Ruby could make out a similar goodbye from Nora in the background.

"Bye." And with that the call ended and Ruby sat on a nearby stone bench waiting to return to the club for her shift. At least today hadn't been too dull.

* * *

Ruby didn't have the longest patience in the world. Having four older sisters and working for a club since she was thirteen had left her with little time where she was doing nothing, and as such she had never had need for a patience. This meant that after the twentieth minute of waiting in near silence, she had understandably become rather bored. Luckily for her, her fight with Sun hadn't really worn her out and so she had plenty of energy to burn. She decided to take herself through the basic warm-up routine that Jax had basically ingrained into her muscles, starting with stretching before moving on to push-ups, sit-ups and squats. She had been halfway through her second set push-ups when she heard a whistle from behind her. She turned around to see a pair of mix-matched eyes staring intently at her as she worked. She wasn't too surprised, she had worked up a sweat, having worked out for twenty minutes or so, Nora seemingly running late. She also had taken off her jacket as a result of said workout and currently only wore a white, now nearly transparent, top underneath, displaying her well-toned form beneath. What did surprise here were who the oddly coloured eyes belonged to.

There stood before her was a girl who anyone would admit was an oddity. She wore a white waistcoat and form fitting black leggings with similarly coloured heels adding to her measly height, standing at little more than five foot two. What was most striking however was her eyes and hair, her hair was split directly down the middle with one half being a bright glossy pink and the other a deep chocolate brown. Her eyes were the same colour but with the colours inverted, with the pink iris on the side of the brown hair and vice versa. She regarded Ruby almost hungrily as the girl stood up and met her gaze, waiting to see what the girl wanted. The smaller girl was, Ruby admitted, well formed, somehow filling out rather nicely despite her small size.

"Can I help you?" Ruby asked politely. She was used to being hit on by random men and women, she didn't really care about how pretty she was, but had been constantly reminded, by strangers and sisters alike, that she was beautiful. She was in a relationship already, though she could feel it starting to slip. The fact was, she was busy. Her life required her to remain fit all the time and it required her to study in what other free time she had. She only had one day off a week between her work and club shifts, and on that day she often wanted nothing more than to lay in bed for half the day and maybe hang out with her sisters for the rest. This meant that her current relationship and prior ones had been strained at the best of times, the other often thinking she was ignoring them. In a sense she was, she would feel bad about it, but knew that the relationships would rarely last more than a few months at most. Her current one, with Ilia's best friend Adam, hadn't been too bad, Adam being relatively busy himself with running his own local gang 'The White Fang', but she knew there was little to no actual connection outside physical attraction and so was not too worried if he was to call up and call off what they had.

The girl simply gawked for a bit more before running her finger in the air. Pink writing formed as she wrote. ' _Sorry. I was just going to ask if you knew where the combat hall was. I was told to wait outside it by Professor Goodwitch. I just got a bit excited and couldn't help myself, I'm sorry for my actions.'_ Ruby raised a questioning eyebrow at the text and then the girl. She was about to ask, but the girl seemingly read her mind and opened her mouth, revealing the issue. She had no tongue, an angry red scar the only thing remaining of the muscle. Ruby fought against her gasp, instead settling on a sympathetic look instead. The writing must be her semblance, or something related to it.

"I'm sorry. And the hall is that way." She gestured to the building she had come from. The small multi-coloured girl nodded and made to move out, but Ruby put a hand out to gesture for her to hold on. "Are you applying early too?" The small girl nodded and offered her a gloved white hand Which Ruby took and shook. "Wow no one in seventy years has done so and all of a sudden two at once. Must be fate. Nice to meet you, name's Ruby Rose." The small girl's eyes widened slightly, an action Ruby didn't miss but decided not to ask about.

Writing appeared in between them ' _I'm Neapolitan nice to meet you too'._ Ruby laughed slightly at the name, puzzled as to how a parent could name their child after an ice cream flavour, regardless of how she looked, unless… Neapolitan seemed to read her thoughts again and wrote. ' _I was an orphan and the gang that took me in weren't known for their originality, my friends just call me Neo'._ Ruby nodded, sympathising with the girl's circumstances, at least she had known her name. Her thoughts were interrupted by the honking of a horn. Both girls looked round to see Nora waving to get Ruby’s attention from her silver sports car. Ruby sighed and laughed simultaneously before turning to face Neapolitan on last time.

"Well Neo, good luck and maybe we can see each other again in Beacon." The smaller girl nodded and scrawled furiously. ' _Yeah, I think I would like that.'_ Ruby nodded, retrieved her jacket and ran over to Nora's car, waving goodbye to her new friend as she did so. The waving was briefly returned before the girl turned on her heels, a spring clear in her step, and entering the exam hall. Nora was grinning like a Cheshire cat as she approached.

"Not even three months and you're already giving up on Adam?" Ruby swatted at her sister's shoulder and donned an un-amused glare as she entered the passenger's seat.

"It wasn't like that. Besides why do you care? I swear you don't like him and I had to practically bribe you to not tell Ilia or Jun about it." Nora chuckled some more at the remark, clearly enjoying her morning.

"I don't, in fact I couldn't be happier, but she sure seemed to. And hey at least we know which one of us is gay, I mean it's supposedly one in five and all that." Ruby failed to hide a blush and Nora burst out laughing again, pulling out into the street. Ruby mentally commanded the collar to tighten slightly, causing Nora to cough uncontrollably for a few seconds. It was Ruby's turn to laugh. "Hey that's not fair. Just cus I'm right, doesn't mean you can abuse me." Ruby sighed at the scolding. Unfortunately, despite Ruby being learning to control her powers better, she had yet to find a way to get rid of the things she created short of destroying it. In Nora's case however, she couldn't destroy it without risking Nora's safety due to its symbiotic relationship with her. Luckily it didn't do anything without ruby telling it to, but she still felt guilty for essentially constantly having Nora's life in her hands. Though she would admit it was fun to tease Nora with it sometimes.

* * *

"Remind me again why we are currently sat, eating lunch, in a cemetery." Nora complained through half a mouth of food. Ruby groaned, Nora knew, after all they had discussed why many times over the last eight years. She swallowed before answering.

"Because, my tattoo allows me to turn negative emotions into Grimm, and this is possibly the most humane way of collecting them. I get quite a lot passively, just from broken hearts and noses at the club, but as I'm hopefully going to Beacon soon, I will need to stockpile extra as getting out will be hard." Ruby drawled, having repeated the information way too often for her liking. Unsurprisingly, it had been Bart that had discovered this particular part of her powers, he did so by using his semblance on all of the Grimm she made. Each one's earliest memory was part of the emotion they were collected from. It was quite depressing as a child, to have to occasionally spend a few hours outside hospitals, graveyards and police stations just so they could further experiment with the extent of her powers. Nora sighed.

"Yeah I know, but did I really have to be here too? I mean, you have to admit this is pretty dull." Nora took another hearty bite out of her sandwich causing some mayonnaise to drop from the other side, onto her jeans. She swore and tried to clean it up with a napkin. Ruby chuckled at the display.

"Hey, if I have to sit with you every time you accidentally fry the block's power grid, then you have to sit here with me now." Nora groaned again.

"Hey, that was one time." Ruby levelled a disbelieving look at her. "Okay maybe twice." The look never vanished. "Okay, so it happens about once a year, but at least you have things to do in that time." Ruby donned a sickly sweet smile that her sisters had grown to dread.

"My dearest sister Nora, are you insinuating you don't like spending time with me? And here I was wanting nothing more than to spend time with my sister who will hardly see me for the next four years." She feigned crying for a moment, a hint of challenge hidden beneath the crocodile tears. Nora's Grimm, Raijin they had called him, laughed as Nora gulped.

' _You're too soft'_ the deep rumbling voice came from inside her head. She quietly hissed at him only for Ruby to laugh at their exchange. The two seemed to forget that Ruby could hear their chats with each other, a side effect of the collar. It was the Tiger's turn to gulp, sounding to most like thunder rolling in the background. Nora laughed at him.

"You're no better you overgrown lap-cat." She looked at Ruby who was still smiling accusingly. "Look, I just think we could be spending some quality time together in somewhere, that isn't here. I mean just five minutes ago you harvested a widow's sorrow over her dead husband, don't you think that is a little dark?" Ruby nodded, finishing her sandwich and tossing the packet into a bin that sat beside their bench.

"No, you're right, let's go, truth be told I'm a little pent up and need to spend some energy after that written test and a let-down of a combat exam." Nora rose an eyebrow but decided against asking for details, Ruby wasn't one to brag and so for her to say so often meant that she was just being honest.

"Alright, now were going more my speed, so what ya wanna do? Arcade? Paintball? Sister battle-royal? Let's do that, the twins teamed up last time, you gotta want some revenge for that." Ruby nodded as they headed for the car park. It was true, the sisters often held a free-for-all spar once every few months. The result varied a lot. Sometimes Ilia would stay hidden until the end and test her luck in the one vs one, other times she interposed at key points in the fight. The twins had two approaches as well, often working together, making their chances of winning a lot higher, but occasionally they would attempt to betray the other, Miltia intentionally swapping places at a bad time or Melanie mentally calling out the wrong attack so her sister missed the chance to block. Ruby and Nora were banned from using their marks for obvious reasons and so were not as likely to win as one might think. Nora, whilst being the strongest individual due to her age, was often focused out by the others and would either win or go out first, often depending on how Ilia decided to play the fight. Ruby had yet to win, being the youngest meant she was the weakest in strength and her fighting style was less effective against the people who helped cultivate it in the first place. Her semblance had allowed her land in second place multiple times, but the moment it was a one on one she had a severe disadvantage. Teleportation was less useful when your opponent was ready for it, and just waiting for you reappear in the path of another attack.

"I'm game, I'll call the others see if they want to." She sent a text to her sisters, receiving various forms of affirmative and they all said to meet in the gym in an hour. Ruby turned to Nora as they drove. "One of these days we should use our marks, just to see how well they hold out." Nora gave her a judgemental look causing her to raise her hands in mock surrender. "I'm just saying, I'd like to know just how far I could go with my powers, but unlike you I can't do it without drawing massive attention to us." Nora's look turned sympathetic. She knew what it was like to live with her power constantly suppressed, an upside to reconciling with Raijin was that she didn't have to wear her limiters anymore, Ruby had no such luck. She didn't wear limiters, but she had to constantly tell her instincts to hold back. Being part of her Grimm meant that no demon plagued her dreams, but it also meant that reality was harder to live through.

"Hey, I'm sure one day you'll be able to let loose, but till then we need you to be strong okay?" She leaned over and put her free hand over Ruby's, her other on the steering wheel. "Can you do that for me?" The request was innocent and Ruby smiled in response. She may often tease her family about their various quirks, but she loved each and every one of them, and could only imagine what would happen if she hadn't been taken in by Junior that night. If she had stayed with _him._

* * *

Neapolitan gently closed the door behind her, letting out a disappointed sigh as she bent down to take her shoes off. The combat exam had bored her. The boy she had been paired up against, Neptune she remembered, had been a complete push over, more interested in showing off rather than being efficient. Her semblance had made the fight trivial and the boy had failed to adapt. She went towards her room, wanting nothing more than to burn off the energy she had expected to need for the exam. She paused when she saw an orange glow splash onto the far wall of the apartment. She stiffened and lowered her head at the sound of metal tapping on the tiled floor, getting closer with each click.

"Did you succeed?" The voice was judgemental, almost accusing, a sense of fear running up her spine as she listened. She nodded, not once looking up at him as he continued speaking. "Good. And the girl?" She nodded again, using her semblance to make an illusory copy of Ruby appear beside her. "Good. You have done well. Tomorrow, you are to go to our client and tell him, it's time to move forward with our plan." She paused before slowly nodding. "Good, now go" a gloved hand gestured to the room she had been assigned and she quickly followed the instruction, closing the door behind her.

Once in the safety of her room she let out a breath she had been holding the whole time. She felt her back shift uncomfortably and resisted the urge to give in to it. She stepped over to her chest of drawers, pulling open the top drawer as she did so. A single silent tear, falling into the vial she pulled out.


	8. Chapter 8

Ruby planted her feet, burning the soles as she was forced to slide to lessen her momentum. I had become apparent over the years that Nora had been holding back a fair bit in their spars. The other girls had trained their bodies within an inch of perfection, hardly an ounce of fat on any of them and yet Nora still seemed to hit them as if they were made of paper. The girl's strength was monstrous, even Jax would often use his semblance in order to keep himself stable against her heavier hits. He was definitely physically stronger, but that didn't mean he wanted to get hit by what felt like a speeding car every time she threw a punch. As a result almost all of the other girls had become increasingly adept at dodging and deflecting rather than blocking, knowing they would probably never be able to beat Nora in a contest of raw strength.

To Ilia and Melanie this had come easily. Both had exceptional balance and could twirl, flip, spin and jump around most attacks thrown. Miltia had taken some time to learn it but had, with the extra help of Melanie, eventually grasped it well enough that she was only slightly worse than the other two. Ruby on the other hand had not been so good at dodging at first, without the use of her semblance. As a child she had been rather flat footed and so struggled to turn on the balls of her feet or balance with only one half of her foot on the ground. They had rectified this and to the average observer she would seem to be extremely nimble, but to the others it was apparent that she couldn't hold out for as long as they could. Luckily for her, Ruby had managed to find another way out of her predicament.

Ruby was fast, extremely so. She could dash a hundred meters in little over ten seconds and this speed translated into her fighting. Whilst she may not be able to dodge as well as her sisters she found her way out in the form of remaining on the offensive. Her speed allowed for her to outpace almost all of her opponents without them having even the slightest opening to counter attack. Her stamina was also second only to Miltia and Nora meaning she could go at full speed for a long time, and in the heat of a fight, to her opponent, it seemed like forever.

Ruby looked up at the scene she had just been ejected from. As usual the sisters had an unwritten agreement to get rid of Nora first. She hit the hardest and if she made it to a one vs one, she would likely only need one or two hits before the other gave into exhaustion. Currently Ilia had decided she should join the fight having appeared next to Nora and swept her legs from under her. Nora caught herself and rolled away from the kick delivered to where she had been, the click of Melanie's bladed heels punctuating the attack. Ruby's sister all fought with the weapons that Junior had gifted them on their sixteenth.

Melanie had a pair of heels that had knifes hidden beneath the sole and inside the heel parts of the shoe. She could tap her feet together and the blades would come out, repeating the action would have them retract. It had seemed like an odd weapon to most, but Melanie had by far the best balance of the sisters, or of anyone they had met. She was a prodigy in acrobatics able to perfectly balance on her hands or feet and weave in attacks from angles most would think impossible.

Miltia had been given a pair of bracers that would extend into four long metal, claw-like blades that rested over her fists. Miltia hadn't been better at hand to hand than any of the others, but had decided to specialise in it after her sister began to focus on kicks and related styles. This allowed the two to rapidly switch which angle and height they were attacking from, also the extra distance granted by the claws often meant that she could earn a few extra hits when her opponents weren't expecting it.

Ilia had always been more a spy or infiltration type, having spent a lot of time with Mavis who was the club's current best spy and Intel gatherer. She had been trained to use a high calibre sniper rifle by Mavis, but the weapon was of little use in a brawl-like fight such as this one and so she hadn't brought it. Instead she used her black, blade guarded gloves to parry the attacks from her sisters. In close quarters she specialised in holds and suppression techniques, making her very effective in stopping Nora's rampages in the fight. However she had by far the least stamina and would often loose if she had to fight more than one person at a time, unable to keep pace in combat with her sisters in close range. In the fight she often acted as an opportunist, cutting in to stop Nora from finishing another one of her sisters until she was eliminated, from there she would hide or dodge in hopes of surviving and being one of the last two fighters.

Ruby had yet to receive her weapons like her sisters had, but she fought using her dagger and pistol that she had been trained with. Ruby was not the strongest of the girls, not the weakest either, but her natural speed and dexterity allowed her to take full advantage of her small weapons. She could effortlessly bypass most attempts of defence, the dagger small and deadly enough to allow her to slip through and land dangerous attacks. Her pistol served as a way to facilitate her approach. She tried to not rely on her semblance too much and so would use her pistol to offset the balance of her opponents when approaching, it also allowed her to take someone out quickly by teleporting to an unguarded side and shooting before they could react. In the spar with her sisters she used rubber bullets as to not risk any actual damage to the others, not that many of her shots connected, but caution was her preferred approach.

There was a loud shout as Melanie was sent flying against Miltia, both landing outside the tape-marked boundaries of the arena. Ruby blanched, that was rare; the twins were hardly ever the first out, Nora often focusing on Ilia when she could and everyone else focusing on Nora, and yet the twins had been thrown out first. Ruby focused on the other two, both staring her down, a hint of battle craze slipping into their eyes as they beheld her. That explained a lot. The other two must have decided it be best if they team up. Ilia would prefer the one vs one with Nora and Nora would be allowed to focus on just the one target. Ruby swallowed as Nora raised her guard and Ilia seemed to disappear before Ruby's eyes. They had discovered that Ilia's semblance allowed her along with what she is touching to become invisible, only the faintest shimmer noticeable and even that was if you could get close enough to make it out.

Ruby's mind raced as Nora slowly edged towards her, clearly serving as a front line fighter for the pair, so that Ilia could try and surprise Ruby when she was unguarded. _What can I do? If I could get it to just me and Ilia I may be able to win, but fighting Nora whilst constantly having to look out for Ilia is nigh impossible. Maybe I can get some shots in on Nora and eliminate her that way? No they won't give me time to do that. Come on think._

Nora burst forward, right fist cocked back in a broadcasted haymaker. Ruby knew it was a threat more than an actual attempt to hit her, most likely goading her into Ilia's waiting grip. She decided it best not to concede ground and instead slid on her knees under the attack, switching places with the older girl. She could hear a frustrated huff, likely from the invisible Ilia. She suppressed her chuckle as to remain focused, but couldn't help a slightly amused smirk grace her lips. Nora whirled round giving Ruby no time to counter and so she opted instead to back step a few paces. She felt the rose, currently nestled against her forearm, writhe in anticipation, likely lapping up the emotions from the room, but also raring to attack as Nora drew close again. It suddenly lurched as if attempting to pull Ruby forward. The link was made in Ruby's mind and she got the message. _Duck._

She bent forward in time to see Ilia's leg sail overhead, she capitalised on the over-extension grabbing the leg and throwing Ilia over the top of her and into Nora's path. Both had to stop themselves and reset their guards, giving Ruby a moment to think. The Grimm rose could sense Ilia when she was invisible, but how? Then it clicked, her emotions. Ilia may be invisible, but she still had emotions when hiding, so a Grimm could sense her. She grinned, mentally commanding the rose to keep track of Ilia as she was stalking around. Its grip tightened in confirmation of her instruction and she returned her focus on her sisters before her.

Ruby altered her grip on her dagger, holding the blade between her thumb and fingers before throwing it at Nora. The ginger girl ducked causing the blade to go sailing past her scalp by little more than a centimetre. Nora grinned, ruby now unarmed to combat her in close quarters. She looked up but was surprised no to find Ruby where she had previously been. A cold, keen blade pressed against her neck and a satisfied hum accompanied it. Nora moved to reverse the situation but stopped as her knees buckled from a sharp pain that cut across the back of her legs, two metallic bangs punctuating the shots ruby had fired. Nora grumbled something under her breath and tapped the floor three times in submission.

Ruby released her but quickly stood, aware that Ilia was looking for a window of opportunity. The rose was tugging her to her left, indicating that Ilia was over there, however she couldn't give away her knowledge of her whereabouts and so rotated to her right instead. The moment her back was turned she felt the rose tug harder and whirled around just in time to block a punch to her mid-section. Ilia's eyes were wide with surprise, but her reflexes kicked in and she tripped Ruby, grabbing her over extended arm and pinning it to her back. Ruby struggled back but failed to break the hold. Ilia grunted from exertion as she snaked her arm around Ruby's throat and began a submission hold.

Ruby flailed against her sister, trying and failing to gain ground. Her vision blurred as her hands pried at the constrictive grip to no avail. She refused to tap out despite her sisters worriedly calling to her from the side-line. Between exhausted grunts Ilia spoke.

"Come on Rubes. There is no shame in tapping out now." Ruby made to reply but failed to do so due to the lack of air, her field of vision narrowing by the second. Ruby could feel the vines along her back, crawling within her shadow, writhing to be released and defend her. She closed her eyes, hundreds of burning red irises met her in the darkness, each begging, growling, and pleading for her to let them loose. A small part of her mind betrayed her. _What if you did?_

_No!_ She couldn't let that happen, too much could go wrong. She wanted to win but not at the risk of hurting her sisters.

_But they've been locked up for so long. Nearly sixteen years of gathered emotion. A nearly endless supply of Grimm waiting on you command to come to life. Just think about it, no more holding back, no more hiding… no more loosing._

Ilia flinched back as she heard a growling emanate from Ruby. At first, she thought that it was Ruby, but soon realised that several pairs of blood red eyes had appeared in her shadow. She jumped back, releasing Ruby from her hold and filling Ruby's lungs with sweet, life giving air she had previously been deprived of. The smaller girl quickly tapped out, breathing heavily both from the hold she had been released from and from the exertion of holding back her powers. Ruby looked over to Nora, who was looked concerned, having sensed Ruby's power spike and her collar become restless.

"Nora, call Uncle Bart. We need to talk. I can't keep doing this." Nora seemed to understand and left to call on the history professor whilst her other sisters moved to help Ruby up.

* * *

"And that, my young historians, is how the Branwens were instrumental in defeating the Atlesian army. Their power proving too much even for the more technologically advanced army of Atlas, thus resulting in Vale's ownership over the western mining district." Bart was currently whizzing around his lecturing room, between the blackboards, the slideshow on the far wall and handing out sheets of paper to his students. He looked up at varying intervals, occasionally throwing objects at sleeping students. He kept a basket of rubber balls under is desk for such occasions. As he swept the room for such individuals, he picked up one of said balls and hurled it at a large brown-haired boy called Cardin. The projectile struck true earning a surprised yelp from the large boy. "Pay attention mister Winchester, if we do not learn from history then we are doomed to repeat it. For instance, could you tell me as to why a night-time assault on a group of Faunas would be a poor tactical decision?" Cardin looked confused before donning a smirk.

"Cus' they would still be awake, probably fucking like the animals they are." He earned himself a few amused laughs and chuckles from his friends sat around him. Bart was not amused, and more attentive students were wise enough to remain quiet whether they found it funny or not.

"I see, well as you're obviously confident in your answer, could you and Miss Scarlatina come and give us a live demonstration. After all, the proof is in the pudding no?" The professor was clearly setting the boy up, but he seemed clearly unaware of what he was about to go through. After a few minutes Cardin was facing off against a tall, brunette Faunas girl with long rabbit ears protruding from the top of her head. She seemed nervous but managed to steel herself when she reached the raised stage the lecture had been delivered from. The desks had been pushed to the sides to provide room for the demonstration. The Professor began a countdown for the fight to start as they nodded that they were ready. Bart fought to hide his grin at what was about to happen. "3…2…1… Begin!" He simultaneously pulled down on the light switch plunging the room in darkness.

"Hey! Who turned out the ligh…?" Cardin's voice was cut off and replaced by pained grunts that he let out, each punctuated with a thump. This continued for a few more seconds before there was a louder crash and Bart turned the lights back on to reveal an unconscious Cardin at the girl's feet. Cardin's friends looked on in shock.

"That, dear students, is a live demonstration. The actual reason Faunas are the superior night fighters is due to their natural night-vision. Each Faunas, regardless of what sub-race they are, be it rabbit, lion or wolf, are born with the innate ability to see almost perfectly in the dark. This was discovered by Lieutenant Carmine in the battle of Menagerie." He strolled over to Cardin's unconscious body and poked him slightly with his shoes to make sure he was asleep. He received no response from the boy and so looked up to the class again. "Let this be a lesson, I do NOT tolerate racism in my presence. Some of my closest friends and family are Faunas, and in the modern era they are equal to humans within the city of Vale. This was a warning, one I hope both mister Winchester and the rest of you learn from, in future a racist comment or action that I hear about will result in a trip to the hospital and the headmaster's office. Understood?" He received hurried nods and hummed in acknowledgement. However, someone fancied themselves brave.

"But professor, surely it is illegal for you to harm students." This caused Bart to outright laugh at the boy, who unsurprisingly sat near Cardin. Most of the class froze from the maniacal display, well aware this was not the case.

"My dear boy, this is Beacon academy for Huntsmen and Huntresses." He slowly walked towards the boy, intimidating despite his disorganised appearance. "In case you hadn't noticed we are training you to survive in the harsh world that Hunters must survive in, as such there are no laws preventing me from sparing with you and a freak accident occurring is there?" The boy seemed not to catch on.

"But surely you would get in trouble if you were constantly attacking students, would it not look suspicious?" Some of the other students around him seemed to nod in agreement but this only elicited another laugh from him.

"Oh mister Lark, I assure you that a value judgement will be made by the headmaster on the case, but I think he might find me a little more valuable than an underachieving, bigoted, racist twat with little to no talent either in learning or on the battlefield." His voice had slowly started ramping in volume and venom, causing many students to lean away from him as he approached. Suddenly his scolding gaze switched rapidly back to the smile of the history eccentric they were all used to. "Class dismissed; I expect an essay on the battle on my desk by Friday." His students said their various goodbyes and quickly filed out of the room, Bart instructing some of the boys to take Cardin to the infirmary.

Bart himself downed the remainder of his coffee and went to fill up another mug, he was however, interrupted by the buzzing of his phone in his pocket. He pulled it out to see Nora's contact info appear, he rapidly scanned the room, finding it empty before picking up.

"Nora? I'm at work if this isn't important, I'm going to have to ask if this can wait till later." He spoke slowly and objectively but left the conversation up for appraisal.

"Bart, it's Ruby, she is having issues controlling herself again. We need to figure out a way to keep her powers on a leash. She's getting increasingly frustrated with having to hold back. Maybe we could take her into the woods and let her let loose or something?" Bart sighed rubbing the bridge of his nose as he thought.

"I see. Well we can't do that, if the wrong person sees then we are in trouble." He thought momentarily on the possible cases that could happen from people seeing Ruby 'let loose'.

"Why not just have Mavis keep an eye out whilst she vents? We can't keep forcing her to pool it, she almost lashed out at Ilia in a spar." Nora's voice came through worried and lost.

"Can she not just make a small Grimm like she used to? It's too risky to let her preform her powers out in the open."

"She says she can't do it anymore. It's not that she's amassing too much emotion it's that she's having to restrain her instincts as a Grimm, it's like asking a pregnant woman to not give birth simply because it's too dangerous." Of course, Bart knew this, but he was at an impasse in what he could do about it. Right then he heard the door open and he decided he would have to think on it.

"Okay, I'll have to think about our options, but ask her if she can hold out till later and I will be there when work is over. I have to go bye." He put the phone down, not wanting anyone to know who he had been on the phone with or what they were talking about. He turned to see Glynda walk towards him, a confused and slightly anxious expression spread across her face. However, what was most surprising was the suited man beside her. He had never seen him before, but recognised the emblem emblazoned over his heart. An image of a black bird with its wings spread wide, enveloping a red shield, the Branwen crest. Bart's gaze shot between the two, hoping to glean some information.

"Professor Oobleck, this gentleman is here to see you, apparently on some important business." She spoke quickly and to the point, a rare hint of politeness evident in her voice. Bart took the man in gesturing for him to explain.

"Nice to meet you Professor, I will keep things brief. I am here to escort you to his highness, Qrow, who is waiting for your arrival in his town house in Vale." Bart nodded. It seemed he had finally managed to get the prince's attention, for better or worse. He suppressed a gulp and grabbed his thermos which he had been filling with coffee. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

Qrow Branwen was having a boring day, a boring week, and a boring month. Hell, he wasn't sure the last time he had a genuinely fun time. His father had seemingly nothing better to do than constantly pressure him to 'keep up the family image'. Honestly, he could hardly care less about his image and was half tempted to let his sister have the throne that she wanted so badly. The only things that convinced him otherwise were the expensive alcohols and the threat of Raven potentially deciding that a roaming Branwen was too dangerous to let live, blood relation or no. They had never been particularly close as siblings, they may have been a lot better off if she had been born first. She had ambitions, not all of them bad, and he almost felt bad for not having any whilst standing in her way. So, in recent years, rather than pester him with her endless commentary about his worthlessness, she had set about forging her daughter into what she wished she could have been. If she couldn't get the throne, then her daughter certainly would.

Luckily for Qrow's fleeting interests, in the last eight years he had been bombarded by requests for a meeting from one Professor Bartholomew Oobleck. This was nothing new to him at first, being a part of a legendary family having earned him plenty of boot-lickers along the years, each begging for his attention. However, this man had been different, whereas most would stop pestering him after he blocked them out, this particular individual only seemed to try harder. He had started by mailing him, then creating a different email address after it had been blocked, even going so far as to hack into the programme and force himself off of the ban list. It was at this point that he had caught the prince's interest, but Qrow rather enjoyed their game and so continued to make it harder and harder for the man to communicate with him. Yet, he always found a way.

The professor's most recent message had come in the form of his dinner a few nights ago, the salad arranged to spell out the same message he had always sent. How the man had done it he may never know, but it was after all this time that he decided it time to meet the individual that had served as one of his few sources of entertainment over the last almost-decade. He hadn't been quite prepared for the state the man would arrive in, but nonetheless decided to reserve his judgements on the green haired man who sat frequently sipping from a thermos flask before him at his guest table in his town house. They had been sat in silence for close to two minutes and neither seemed to want to be the first one to break it, though the professor was seemingly doing so out of respect rather than nature. Qrow decided to speak first.

"So, professor Bartholomew was it? What has had you so insistently bothering me over the last eight years?" He let a playful tone enter his voice at the mention of their little game and the professor didn't seem to miss it. Qrow may not like the games played in court and had no desire to be part of them, but he had a talent at playing them, one he hated as it meant that his father went on and on about wasted potential, and loved because it meant he hardly had to pay attention in said court sessions. The history eccentric took a swig of coffee before turning around and looking at the two suited guards stood by the door, he quickly turned back around and met the prince's gaze, an urgent hardness glinting beneath the glasses.

"Please your highness, call me Bart. I am thankful that you agreed to see me, _at last,_ " he whispered that last part under his breath, Qrow still heard but simply chuckled at the jab. "If we could speak with less prying ears, I would feel a lot more comfortable." His eyes darted to and from the two men stationed at the door, both seeming uneasy from his suggestion. The Prince simply waved them off and though hesitant they obeyed. Once the door closed Bart seemed to visibly calm and took another sip of coffee.

"Now that we are alone, and I assure you we are; those doors are soundproof, you can finally reveal to me what your 'very pressing matter' is." Qrow's gravelly voice sounded almost as tired as Bart looked and for a moment, they seemed to both simply enjoy the quite moment.

"I am surprised you were so trusting so quickly, I expected to have to explain myself and try to convince you." The man seemed sceptical of Qrow's willingness causing the prince to chuckle once again.

"Well you see, view this as a sort of apology for leading you on and making your escapades harder. Also, need I remind you why there hasn't been a successful assassination attempt on a Branwen since we decided to stake a claim over Vale?" As he spoke black ink crawled up the side of his face until it settled resembling skeletal arms clawing and scratching at his flesh as if begging for escape from some hidden mass grave. A deep, instinctual dread built in Bart's stomach, forcing him to audibly swallow. Qrow smirked and the tattoo receded, back to an unseen spot on his body. Bart recovered slowly; slightly wary he was being led on. Eventually his curiosity won out over his survival instincts.

"Indeed. Well if you insist on getting straight to the matter and are absolutely sure it is safe to speak here…" he waited for Qrow to nod in confirmation "I will begin." Bart took a deep breath, mentally prepping for the gravity of his next few actions. "What if I told you for the last eight years my family have harboured the late Summer Rose's child?" The statement was said cautiously and hung in the air like radioactive residue from a recently detonated bomb. Qrow's expression quickly darkened, hints of the skeletal arms returning at the corners of his neck.

"I would tell you that you have exactly three minutes to tell what you know, how you know it and what you're here for." The threat wasn't hidden, and Bart found himself sipping from his flask for a confidence boost. Not much truly frightened Bart, but he could say with confidence that the man in front of him was someone he would not want to piss off. For all of his tomfoolery and jokes, Qrow was a prodigy even amongst the Branwens, the kind of person that came once every few generations and was written about for years to come. This was the main reason why his farther was so persistent and why his sister was so frustrated with his attitude.

"Well, I am afraid it may take a bit longer than that and it would help for me to know what you already know." Bart's voice was still audible but trembled at the end of his sentence betraying his brave expression.

"Assume I know nothing." Bart first moved to object but the stare he received made him quickly decide that a few extra minutes of storytelling and probing was worth keeping his head and genitalia attached to his body.

"As you wish. You see my brother is Hei Xiong, he runs a club in downtown Vale…" He spent the next fifteen minutes regaling the tale of how they had met Ruby and what they knew about her. Bart had considered leaving out some information but decided it not worth the risk of the prince thinking he was hiding things from him, especially if he may already know half of it anyway. By the time he was done explaining, Qrow had been through a kaleidoscope of emotions. At first, he had been overjoyed at the notion of having a daughter, then he had been pissed at Apep and the Xiao-Longs for what they had put Ruby and summer through. However, it was genuine worry that engulfed him as the explanation drew to a close in the modern day.

"Shit." Qrow had known Summer for years, perhaps even loved her once, and to find out that she had borne him a daughter, who was by birth-rite second in line for the throne just behind himself but was instead living as a bodyguard for a criminal right under his nose. It was a lot to take in. He pondered his options in his head for what seemed to be an eternity, Bart not wanting to disturb the brooding man. He couldn't acknowledge Ruby as his heir without consequence, after Summer had disappeared Qrow had fallen into a slump for several years, and in this time his father had managed to convince him to get betrothed to a wealthy family from Atlas to strengthen their ties to the once enemy. He held nothing against the woman who was now his fiance, though he would admit he had hardly had any interaction with her, but his father was already pushing him to stick a baby in her. If he were to accept Ruby as his heir, he would have to go public with what had been happening between himself and Summer. However, if the Xiao-Longs and Raven had tried to be rid of her once, revealing her survival would only place her in more danger, but if he didn't do something, she was likely to one day be discovered and be executed for high treason. What could he do? Bart saw his internal struggle and decided to offer his opinion.

"Might I suggest you meet with the girl? Maybe experience the gravity of the situation for yourself." The prince seemed to consider the implications of the option in his head for a few moments before nodding. "I warn you to be careful, her powers are quite extraordinary and so may warrant you to be careful around her, as I explained she has thrown another marked around in the past, at the age of eight, and has only grown stronger since. She also is struggling to control her power, as we can't let her use it too often and she has so much of it." Qrow nodded again.

"Take me to her, I need to see this with my own eyes."


	9. Chapter 9

Ruby was at her wits end. The tests had been disappointing, she had been forced to concede the spar due to wanting to maintain control and afterwards her sisters had done nothing but baby her. She was used to it, being the youngest of what was essentially five sisters meant that she had been through more babying than she would like to admit, she would be lying if she said she didn't sometimes take advantage of this, but it could get annoying quickly. After the incident her sisters had asked her non-stop if they would like one of them to cover her shift at the club tonight. Luckily Melanie and Miltia had the same shift so she managed to convince them that if she felt off, she would just leave, and they could keep an eye on her. It hadn't been an immediate agreement, but she had managed to win out in the end. However, she was well aware that since the start of her shift the twins were constantly looking over at her to see if she was okay. At first, she had been fine with it, but they had seemingly gotten progressively closer to her, as if worried she would flip at any moment. Little did they know they weren't helping the situation.

It wasn't until she had gone to the bathroom that for the first time that night, she felt truly alone. She had sat in the stall massaging her temples and doing breathing exercises for a solid twenty minutes, trying and failing to will the stress away. _Why couldn't I have been a normal girl?_ Ruby had never regretted doing anything in her life, except maybe collaring Nora, but sometimes she wished that she could let loose just once. To feel the sweet release that Nora described when she went all out, to, for a moment in time, just be herself. To not feel the mounting pressure in her head as her Grimm begged and clawed for release. It would listen to her if she forced it to stop, but like a caged animal it grew hungry and frustrated with being constantly held back, she would like to get along with it, like Nora and Raijin. However, doing so would mean she would have to stop holding back and she couldn't risk it, no matter how much she wanted to.

She finished up in the stall and moved to the sinks, examining herself in the mirror. The dull music, thumping through the walls did little to calm her head and if she wasn't used to it, she may just leave. Truthfully, she almost accepted her sister's offer to take her shift; she was tired and was just about ready to throw in the towel, restraining herself taking a lot more of her remaining willpower than she would like to admit. However, she wouldn't go back on herself after making such a fuss over her sisters over-coddling her. She splashed her face with water, savouring the cool embrace the liquid offered her even if only for a moment.

After her third splash she realised the music had stopped, the mirror no longer quietly humming from the amplified base and the dull sound of the over-simplified lyrics completely absent. For a moment she dismissed it as simply the DJ changing tracks, but after the silence persisted for another minute her brow furrowed. That was odd, they shouldn't be closing down yet. She looked at her phone, she still had another four hours before the club closed, two before her shift ended. _What's going on?_ Her thoughts were violently shaken from her head as a thundering boom shook the mirror. After she recovered, she rushed out of the bathroom to a scene she hadn't been expecting, gasping at the sight she beheld.

There stood in the middle of the dance floor was a tall blonde woman wearing form-fitting and rather revealing, brown biking leathers. She wore disarming lilac eyes and a cocky, toothy grin as she looked down on the twins who were sprawled in front of her and Junior staring dumbfounded from behind the bar. What was most eye drawing however was the hints of moving tattoo that coiled along her exposed skin, Ruby could barely make out its design from the distance between them, but it seemed to be covered in some kind of golden feathers?

The twins luckily stood up, mostly unfazed from their tumble. From the looks of things, they had been taken unaware by the blonde, their weapons not drawn, though this quickly changed. Both girls slowly circled the newcomer until they settled on either side of her, meanwhile the stranger simply watched in amusement as they worked around her. Ruby may not have seen what had been exchanged, but for the blonde to take both of her sisters unaware before they could react meant she was dangerous.

The blonde seemed to grow bored of whatever inner amusement she had been revelling in and opted to instigate by lunging at Melanie. The twins instantly swapped places allowing Miltia to block the punch that came high, aimed at her face. The red twin made to grab the blonde but had been forced off balance by the strength of the hit, instead only managing to grab her wrist, hoping it was enough she told Melanie to attack mentally. Her sister immediately did so, only to have Miltia's grip reversed and the blonde to throw the red twin at the white twin. There was a moment where Ruby anticipated a collision between the two, but she was surprised when they swapped places allowing Melanie to connect a blade kick to the blonde's shoulder. She howled in pain and retreated, allowing Miltia to regain her balance. The strange blonde held her hand over her shoulder and hissed as it came away coated in her own blood. She looked over to the twins, eyes shifting to a deep, blazing red.

"You bitch!" At the insult the air seemed to get thicker, heavier and… hotter. Before she realised the blonde assailant had burst into flames, becoming wreathed in golden flames, her hair seeming like a golden river of flame. It would have been beautiful to behold if not for the threatening gaze that had been locked onto her sisters. The girl stepped forward and Ruby gawked at the way the floor momentarily came with the girl's foot as a mixture of melted black and silver tiling and her step caused the ground to sizzle and hiss from the heat. The twins watched, enthralled entirely by the horrific majesty that was displayed by the girl before them. Their thoughts turning dark and panicked. "You're dead!" the girl held out a hand, fire pooling in the palm, before hurling the flames at the twins.

They managed to roll out of the way but weren't prepared for the small explosion from it hitting the wall behind them. They were sent sprawling forward, landing just a few meters from the blonde berserker. It was at this point Ruby snapped out of it running over to her sisters to offer what little help she could. She drew her pistol and fired at the girl's shoulder, only to watch in disbelief as the bullet melted inches from the girl’s face. The blonde didn't seem to care or notice instead walking slowly closer to the twins, eyes boring into Melanie. Ruby thought quickly and teleported between the girl and the twins, crouching low into a stance she knew was made sloppy by her fear.

"Look you don't wanna do this!" her voice trembled as the blonde barely hesitated walking forward, taking in the appearance of the new girl as nought but measly obstacle between her and her quarry. Ruby swallowed. "Look I'm warning you." She could feel her mark writhing and lashing out at the invisible cage of her skin, wanting nothing more than to leap to her defence, but she couldn't listen to it. If she let it go and people found out, she would be in big trouble. The blonde drew close and reared her fist back, engulfing it in molten fury as it reached her shoulder. Ruby could only quiver as she pleaded "P-please…" The fist flew forward and Ruby raised her dagger feebly and closed her eyes preparing for scorching pain of the strike. Only for it to never come, a pained grunt replacing it.

Ruby opened her eyes, and immediately regretted it. All she could make out was a black suited back with arms spread wide in a protective stance a fist emerging from the centre, sizzling and charred flesh surrounding the curled digits. Ruby looked up and struggled for breath as she witnessed Junior's pained face as he held the arm currently piercing his torso. The goliath man let out a feral roar and reared back his own fist delivering a powerful haymaker to the surprised blonde's face. She was sent flying several meters from the strength of the blow, her fire temporarily winking out as she flew. The forceful ejection of the arm from his chest caused junior to lurch forward, breathing heavy as he cradled his injured chest and spluttered up blood.

He had taken the hit for her… She had just stood there… doing nothing but waiting to die… and yet he had jumped in front of her to take the hit instead… he who had no powers… he who had already given her so much… he who had pulled her from the darkness… he who had given her a home… all because she was weak. The word resonated with her as she beheld Junior on his knees, only to stumble and his body still.

She was weak… _weak._

_Rip, tear, rend, flay, thresh… Destroy!_

Ruby looked over to the blonde who was recovering, still nursing her jaw from Junior's punch. Her mind suddenly cleared, a high-pitched ringing drowning out all other sound in the room. A snarl plastered itself across her face… and the room exploded into black.

* * *

Qrow shuddered. It had washed over him like a crashing wave over a protruding rock along a shore. He had to grasp the side of the car he was seated in, in order to steady himself, a sudden nausea overcoming the forefront of his mind. At first, he had thought maybe it was the remnants of that morning's hangover, but after it did not subside, and in fact grew worse as they approached their destination, dashed those hopes. Bart noticed the prince's momentary weakness and nervously fidgeted at the potential cause of such a state.

The professor looked up to see the club come into view. His jaw dropped as he witnessed the swarm of club-goers run down the road, away from the establishment. The car stopped with a jerk, as to avoid hitting anyone as they filled the roads with a sea of bodies.

"What's going on?" Qrow groaned as he nursed his pounding head, his tattoo writhing and crawling across his body as he winced in mental pain. Bart looked on in worried horror as many a familiar face scrambled down the street in desperate, panicked fervour.

"I-I don't know." His curiosity and dread, like usual, won out over his fear causing him to open the car door and run towards the club. Qrow watched slightly dumbfounded but eventually opened his door and followed after. He struggled to keep up with the historian, despite his rather thin frame he was surprisingly spry and disappeared behind the large double doors leading into the club a whole twenty seconds or so before he did. As Qrow burst through the doors he was halted by what he saw. Bart was equally stunned beside him, brain simply overloaded by the scene before him.

The floor was completely enveloped in a thick black substance and rising from the seemingly bottomless pool were equally dark figures, each different from the last. Close to them was a tall, bipedal, lupine monster which snarled and howled as it drew to its full height of roughly six and a half feet. Long, razor sharp claws flashed from amongst the shadowy hair that coated its form. It beheld them for a moment, head tilting slightly to the side as it beheld them, assessing them. It drew a conclusion and instead turned hastily around to face a blazing fire that was struggling against its brethren. It howled and sprinted towards it, being joined by countless other beasts of various shapes and sizes.

Qrow leaned over in an attempt to make out the source of the flame, only to have his eyes widened in shock. There battling the beasts, in what was clearly a losing fight, was his niece Yang Xiao-Long. The wolf-like creature leapt at her jaws and claws spread wide in a ferocious zeal, no interest in guarding its own health. The fiery blonde managed to pivot and blast the beast away but still got caught by the dagger length claws that had sliced at her stomach. She let out a pained cry but redoubled her efforts to burn away the endless monsters that blood-lusted after her. She seemed, for a moment, to gain ground and a cocky grin regrew along her mouth as she melted beast after beast as they drew close. The grin disappeared as she was sent flying into a table beside the bar by thick, black, serrated vines.

He turned to see something that took whatever remaining breath he had away. There, stood amidst the hellish shadow, was a young Summer Rose. She wasn't exactly the same, she wore different style clothing, she had different colour eyes and was clearly several years younger but otherwise she was an exact replica. However, what made the scene so unbelievable was the fact that he could feel the source of the shadow, the pressure in his head and the tide of monsters, was her. He had half expected Bart to be exaggerating her power and her relation to him, perhaps she could be a bastard of a branch family that was simply very genetically similar to him. Yet, when he saw her, any and all doubt was cast from his mind.

Bart was more concerned with what was happening. Ruby stood there an arm pointed towards her blazing opponent who struggled against the endless mass of vines and beasts. However, after a roar of defiance the blonde girl erupted into golden flame, completely enveloping everything around her in the inferno. Bart lost sight of her temporarily before the smoke cleared. His eyes widened as he saw the girls tattoo had come to spread across her whole body, wings of fire protruding from her back and a halo of flame hovering above her head. Despite the heat, a cool, cold anger had entered her glare as she swept a hand in front of her. As the hand sailed through the air Bart could feel the temperature skyrocket, each and every vine and monster between her and Ruby was incinerated instantly, leaving nought but ashes. The girl floated forward, a few inches from the floor her flaming wings flapping to keep her airborne. Bart could see as the floor melted beneath her.

Ruby simply continued to stare blankly at the girl, despite silent tears streaking down her porcelain face, she took in her opponent almost nonchalantly. The rage from Yang only seemed to intensify at the lack of a reaction from the smaller girl. The blonde raised her palm, creating a large ball of fire to coalesce in her outstretched hand. Ruby made no hint of movement. Yang took it as a sign of sheer terror, the tears that she could now see convincing her the girl was simply accepting her death at the hands of her superior. With a toothy grin she hurled the fireball at the still motionless form of Ruby. She didn't see how the shadows had darkened further around Ruby.

The projectile struck true, the resulting plume of fire completely enveloping the younger girl. Yang let out a low chuckle as the black beasts seemed to back away from where their leader had stood, whimpering slightly as they did so, some even lowering their heads in submission. The smoke began to clear, and the blonde's expression dropped. There stood in the middle of the scorch marks that scarred the floor, was Ruby with nary a scratch on her. Yang couldn't help but tremble slightly, she looked down to notice the shadow that covered the floor had seemed to darken and from within its depths she could see hundreds and thousands of glowing, red, hateful eyes boring into her. The other girl simply stared at her disgust clear on her face. Ruby seemed to take the opportunity to speak, only her voice was darker, deeper, angrier than it was a few moments ago.

" _Watch as the power you covet so highly is used against you. Your flames are simply a crude excuse of an imitation that you copy from a glorified slave. You shall learn how wrong you really were."_ Ruby raised her hand and pointed at Yang who almost recoiled at the action. At first nothing happened, and Yang prepared to laugh at the statement, but as she moved, she felt it. It started on her scalp, then her arms, then her torso and before long, her very veins began to burn and scream in pain as her own fire consumed her. Her blood felt like a stream of molten iron, weighing her down and pinning her to the floor as her flesh hardened and charred. Her own fire was betraying her. She dared to look up and noticed that the monsters had not been whimpering because of her, but rather they had sensed the dangerous change in their leader. The fire burning in the smaller girl's eyes put her own flames to shame, even as they burned her alive.

It was at that moment it finally hit her; she was going to die… She moved to beg and cry and flail for her life, but simply couldn't. Her throat croaked in protest, her tears evaporated on her cheeks and her muscles couldn't lift the simmering mass of her burning body. She was going to die… Yang Xiao-Long was going to die, in the middle of nowhere… at the hands of a nobody… with her own powers. She trembled, looking up one last time, silently pleading, only to receive a cold glare as she withered.

A black blur surged close to the demonic looking girl and Yang could hear a blunt sounding noise as the figure clubbed Ruby across the back of the head. A look of shock crossed her face as her eyes drifted closed as a pair of strong arms caught her as she fell into the darkness, where the fiery eyes awaited. The fire around Yang returned to her control and quickly made about healing her wounds, granting her a sweet breath she had be gasping for, for what felt like an endless eternity. She looked over to see her uncle holding the body and grinned as strength returned to her body and she slowly stood.

Only to be clubbed on the back of her head, forcing her into unconsciousness. Qrow looked over to see Bart holding his thermos just over where Yang's head had been and an unapologetic snarl plastered across his face, Qrow dared not push him in that moment. Opting instead for trying to distract the professor as he took in the scene around them and resting his gaze on the unconscious twins and Junior's limp form.

"Call your medical team." The professor grunted in agreement before he also noticed Junior and rushed over. Qrow decided to gently place Ruby down as he followed, wary as the shadowy creatures dissipated slowly back into the shadow that was rapidly returning to Ruby's own. Bart was hunched over Junior and trying feverishly to stem the bleeding as he pressed his phone between one of his shoulders and his cheek and shouting quickly down the line, thermos forgotten off to his side with coffee spilling across the club dance floor.

"I don't give a shit what you're doing right now! You will get Joy over to the club now! Or what?! Or Junior will be fucking bleed out you bastard! Now stop stalling and get your sister over here or, so help me, I will personally hunt you down and peel your puny genitalia like a banana!" Qrow pulled back at the graphic warning, not expecting the violent outburst from the otherwise calm man. He decided it best to leave the building, after all luck wouldn't be on their side whilst he was around them, and god knew they needed all they could get.


	10. Chapter 10

Qrow had always considered himself unlucky. One might consider this preposterous, after all, he was born the heir to the throne of a kingdom, with incredible innate genetic power and many women across the world dreamed of one day wedding him due to his handsomeness and wealth. However, it was exactly this 'luck' that he considered to be a curse. Most tattoos of the marked granted the individuals immense magical powers, his sister could teleport herself or anything else anywhere in the world on a whim so long as she knew where they were and what the destination looked like. His father could mould the earth to his will, capable breaking mountains and creating new ones if he so wished and even his distant cousin, Robin, could create storms large enough to level small towns.

All this power may make them seem untouchable, immortal, maybe even god-like and yet they all fell short at the hands of something so simple that had manifested itself in him. Luck. Simply put his tattoo extracted all of the luck of those around him and gave it to him. To a scientist this may seem preposterous, after all surely luck was not something that could be affected as then it would seem to become too intentional to be called luck, and yet it was true. Qrow could play Russian Roulette for thousands of rounds with only one slot in the revolver being empty and each and every time the gun would click with the sound of the empty chamber. Even if the gun was to have no empty slots something else would intervene; the gun would jam, the bullet would be a dud with no gunpowder even going so far as misfiring and breaking completely in the last persons hand. This 'luck', however, came at a price. Everyone else.

Everyone around him would lose their 'luck' and by extension incur heavy misfortune. In the case of the Russian Roulette game, the whole table, bar him, would be dead on their first attempt regardless of the odds. Learning to fight or work as a boy had been tough; his teachers would fumble and fail due to 'bad luck' and as such even as a complete novice he had managed to best his teachers regardless of the effort he put in. His father had tried to personally tutor him in combat, but as he moved to control the earth a water pipe beneath him burst and forced him out of the arena, giving Qrow the victory by ring out. Even in court he could guess as to whether someone was lying to him, and he would always guess correctly.

He had learned to control his power since then, at least to an extent. It was hard to control something you didn't fully understand after all. However, he could never truly suppress it, often the result was a large quantity of minor slip-ups from those around him, servants would drop drinks and plates of food, people would forget minor details or trip over things that would otherwise be very obvious and easy to avoid.

Why would he consider this unlucky? Didn't this make him just more 'god-like' than even his family, if fate itself was on his side? The answer was simple, he was bored and, though he was loath to admit it, lonely. Never once had he come across a true challenge, never once guessed wrong, lost a fight or even gone without something he wanted. That is until _she_ came into his life.

Summer Rose had been the one time in his life where he had felt truly free. His father had added her to his personal bodyguards one evening and, like always, he originally thought nothing of it. She was pretty, stunning even, but he had seen many women that looked just as good. One time he returned home drunk, very drunk, but even then, not once did he trip over something nor did her bump into any walls or knock anything off the counters. He had been going through a bit of an existential crisis for the last few months and had come home in this state often. Summer had seen this and decided to watch over him when he went out that night, he had eventually noticed her less than stealthy stalking and decided, in his drunken state, to take out his frustrations on her. One short argument later she had talked him into a spar to see if he was as untouchable as he seemed to think he was.

The next morning, he woke in his bed with sore muscles, a black eye, a fractured wrist and the world's worst hangover, or at least he hoped it was. It had completely turned his world upside down; not only was he not as immortal as he originally thought but Summer had kicked his ass without a scratch on her. It was wonderful, it was amazing, _she_ was amazing and as they hung around more and more, he noticed that, whilst she was around, his actions began to actually have consequences in the real sense of the word.

He sighed, _if only it had lasted_.

* * *

Miltia was at her limit; the last few hours of her life had been possibly the worst, save for her eleventh birthday when she had been 'owned' by Apep. She had been running a double shift at the club in order to make sure that Ruby had control over her mark and didn't kill someone at the club, only to have some blonde bitch come bust into the club and start chatting her and her sister up, SIMULTANEOUSLY! Needless to say, they quickly shot down her advances and tried to brush her off. They had no luck with their endeavour however and she constantly tried to woo them with her, admittedly good, looks and money; it was at this point they realised she was a Xiao-Long.

Miltia had her faults, but she was at least honest and in hindsight she and Melanie may have sharpened their tongues to daggers at the declaration of her last name a little too well. However, the blonde had seemed to take it in stride and continuously harass the two as they tried to go about their business. Melanie had quickly grown tired and eventually snapped and began slandering the royals and the Xiao-Longs. Junior had seen the scene about to break out and tried to interpose, immediately realising who the blonde was. However, after failing to defuse the situation he had received a point-blank fireball to the stomach which had sent him flying into a nearby table. The rest was history.

The twins had only managed to push past their crushing defeat due to the panic that had filled them as they awoke to Bart trying and failing to stem the bleeding from Junior. They were now pacing angrily and restlessly outside of the emergency unit that Junior had been put into. Joy had come to try and fix the wound, but no matter how much she healed the fire seemed only to reignite and create the wound anew. She had still tried for the best part of an hour as the ambulance arrived and honestly, she was likely the only reason he had made it this far, but he wasn't out yet. Joy was now lying unconscious in one of the private lounges in the club with her brother tending to her needs. However, what was annoying the red clad twin the most was her sisters infernal rambling and panicking.

"I mean what if they…" Melanie was cut off as the door to the operating room opened slowly and out stepped the best doctor at Beacon Academy and supposedly all of Vale. Annabelle Peach was a friend of Bart's, one of the few he had outside the club and one of only two from the academy. She stood at an average height of five foot seven and was wearing the typical scrubs of a surgeon. However, that is where her 'averageness' ended, she had light brown skin suggesting she hadn't been born in Vale and instead heralded from Vacuo which had a much hotter climate. She also had brown eyes that seemed black until someone got uncomfortably close to notice the slight hue change from pupil to iris, but most odd however, was the hot pink hair that sat comfortably beneath her scrub cap and peeked out from the sides slightly as she left the room. Miltia couldn't tell if her hair was dyed or natural, medical technology had allowed people to alter the root colour of their hair for years and as such had allowed for some odd colours for babies to be born with.

Miltia and Melanie immediately stood at attention as the doctor slowly and carefully approached, the pace the doctor used and the fact that she had yet to look them in the eye filled them with dread as she approached. She finally looked up to them, her nearly black eyes betraying nothing of her results, until her shoulders seemed to slouch. Melanie quickly grew tired of waiting and decided to push the doctor.

"Is he going to be okay?" the twin basically blurted her question only her sympathy for the doctor keeping her rushing emotions in check. Doctor Peach pulled her scrub mask off slowly and hesitated before replying, seeming to search for the right thing to say. She seemed to settle on an answer and looked up to deliver it.

"It depends on what you mean by okay…" she breathed in and tiredly rubbed her fingers on the bridge of her nose. "How you managed to get into a brawl with a Branwen, I will never know, but luckily he seems like he'll pull through." The twins immediately brighten and let out a breath they had been holding but were halted as the doctor raised her hand. "I would not define him as 'okay' though. He hasn't woken up in the last twenty-six hours, nor does he show signs of doing so anytime soon, though if you want my personal opinion, he will do so within the next few days once his blood flow and respiratory system can patch up what it can. Which leads me to the bad news; we cannot find a way to extinguish the fire that was burning him repeatedly." The Twins seemed confused and so she continued on without pausing.

"The Prince informed me that the Branwen child's powers allow her to make flames that burn until it's intended target is completely consumed and seem inextinguishable. Using this information, I tried to isolate the burning flesh and remove it so that the wounds could finally close. However, the table he was sent flying into splintered into his wound and some of the fire began to cling to the wooden splinters as it burned. These splinters have somehow made their way into his heart, likely from him trying to stand after being hit. Trying to remove them without killing him is an impossible task; even if we manage to remove the splinters there is a chance the fire will come into contact with something highly important like the coronary artery and kill him." Melanie's eyes widened as the doctor continued.

"Luckily the remaining fire is nought but embers and so by administering a drug we can keep it at bay. This drug will thicken the cell walls of his heart cells meaning that the fire will constantly have to burn more flesh in order to reach anything vital. However, this is only a temporary fix and I have no doubt that within a few months' time the fire will start to outpace the drug." Doctor Peach swallowed thickly as she considered her next words, the twins hanging on to her sentence like a lifeline. "When that time arrives… his time will be limited." Neither of the twins moved, neither said a word, simply quivering in quiet rage and sorrow as tears began to dampen the edges of their eyes and their make up began to mar. Miltia recovered first a steely defiance entering her gaze.

"But the blonde can call it off right? She can extinguish the flames?" For a moment both twins looked hopefully at the doctor whose heart tore slightly as she beheld the spark of will in their eyes slowly dwindle as she replied, hesitating to immediately break the news.

"I am afraid this isn't the case." The spark sputtered and died. "We asked the prince if she could, but it appears that she simply gives the flames purpose, she cannot change that purpose after initially issuing it." The walls that held back the dread and negativity from the twins cracked and splintered almost audibly as they replayed the doctor's message over and over again in their heads, then they snapped and the damn broke. The waiting room went up in sobbing and no one thought it wise to interrupt the twins as they grieved.

They didn't hear the chuckle that faded quietly into the night, punctuated by the light clicking of metal capped shoes on the tiled floor. Nor did they see the cigar burning itself to embers, half crushed on the floor.


	11. Chapter 11

Raven was many things to many different people. To her father, she was much like his younger self, she believed the family mantra with all her being and moved to implement it into any and everything she took interest in. To a lot of the courtiers she was what many of them wanted Qrow to be, she was strict, proactive and decisive and if it weren’t for her brothers talent she may be the most prodigious Branwen in generations and so many took to licking her boots if Qrow wanted nothing to do with them, which was often the case. However, to Qrow, Raven was a royal pain in the ass; she was always lecturing him on how he was a failure to the family name and how he wasted his potential. For the most part he agreed with her; after all he rarely put effort into anything and the only reason he hadn’t been replaced as heir was due to the pure luck that was his mark. In all honesty, he didn’t want the throne and would have abdicated it to Raven if she was… well not Raven.

Raven was decisive but harsh, often going too far in her punishments for even the slightest of offenses or incidents. Qrow had fought with his sister once over whether or not she should cut off the hands of a handmaiden that had accidently burnt a few strands of her hair with a straightener, of course he had won but he made sure to transfer said handmaiden to another wing of the manor before his sister found another excuse to take action. However, what kept him most wary of his sister was her willingness to listen to and cooperate the Xiao Longs. The Mistralian Royals were strong, crafty and ambitious, this had allowed them to prosper in the much more cut-throat lands of Mistral, but it was this ambition that made them dangerous.

Qrow was many things; lazy, a drunk and short-tempered, to name a few, but he was no fool. He knew the Xiao Longs wanted to solidify power in as much land as possible, they wanted a way to control the happenings in Vale and they saw the union of Taiyang and Raven as a way to do just that. Raven, for all her cunning and brutality, seemed unaware of the growing influence of the Mistralian family, only seeming to concentrate on crafting Yang into the next ruler after he himself passed away.

It was this thought that made him look down at the girl he was now dragging through the halls of the Branwen manor house. Yang Xiao Long-Branwen was the spitting image of his sister, with the only differences beside age being the blonde hair from her father’s family, rather than the jet black of his own, and her sky-blue eyes that were looking down at the floor as he led her forward. She had originally tried to protest and resist as he started forcing her towards their home, but a stern glare and low growl from both him and Bart had her shut up after her third attempt. Honestly, he was surprised the professor hadn’t tried wringing his niece’s neck as they walked down the decorated halls, he was half tempted to let him. Qrow suspected that the professor was taking a little sympathy for the girl as she hobbled down the corridors, having not healed fully from her flames turning on her. The prince may not have the known the professor for long, but from what he did know, he was a soft man most of the time and likely was restraining his very apparent rage out of a mixture of pity for the girl and respect for Qrow.

After a minute or two of walking through the huge building the trio stopped outside of the main dining room where Qrow knew his family would likely be having supper. He knew that most of the gathered royals would not take kindly to his sudden intrusion, after not being there for the start of the meal but was in no mood to put up with any of the shit they would be willing to put him through. Luckily, for him, he had a good reason to interrupt and most of his family would likely listen out of either intrigue or fear. He took a deep breath to prepare himself and looked over to Bart to see the man straighten his tie, the attempt was horrendous and the tie seemed even more skewed than before, but the professor didn’t seem to notice as he too prepared himself for walking in on the nobles. Qrow supressed a chuckle at the display, in order to remain as serious as the situation demanded, before flinging the door open in a small show of anger.

The trio were met with the sight of eight people sat at the long, polished, spruce dining table, each staring at them with varying expressions on their faces. At the head of the table sat his father who looked a mixture of shocked and annoyed at the sight of his son barging in unceremoniously. The older man was what Qrow imagined he may one day look like, he looked a lot like the younger portraits of his father and was often told so, inwardly Qrow hoped he aged better than his father who had grown a little fat as his muscles began seeing less and less use over the years. The king was still formidable foe on the field of battle but noticeably relied a lot more on his powers than his physical prowess in recent years.

Sat on the left of his father was Raven, who made little effort of hiding her distaste at his sudden appearance with her daughter and a stranger. The siblings locked eyes for a long moment before Qrow moved to take in the rest of his audience. To Raven’s left sat her husband Taiyang, it took both Qrow and Bart a lot of restraint to look at him without snarling or shouting. The Blonde prince sat there with a cocky self-assured smirk as he beheld the sudden disturbance. Begrudgingly Qrow moved his gaze.

To his father’s right was an empty seat that he knew belonged to him should he chose to join them at a meal, Qrow never liked the seating plans his father implemented, he understood the meaning each seat held and how it displayed rank amongst the gathered nobles, but he found it increasingly irritating having to sit beside his father and opposite his sister at meals. To the right of the currently empty seat was someone he had not expected to see, and he had to bite back an indignant splutter as he saw his fiancée, Winter Schnee, Atlas’ Crown Princess.

Winter was tall and slender, but not sickly, with pale skin and long platinum-blonde hair which was masterfully tied into a ponytail. She sported royal-blue eyes that seemed calm and relaxed and, even though she was clearly surprised, betrayed nothing of her personal reaction on the display. She wore a long form fitting white dress that gradually faded to light blue below her hips and emphasised her figure with her family emblem of a snowflake depicted slowly falling down the lower half of her dress.

Beside him Qrow heard Bart swallow and clear his throat as he beheld the princess, he looked over to see the professor straighten his tie again, this time leaving it immaculately parallel with his shoulders which had also been straightened. Qrow at any other time may have commented or poked fun at the man, but the situation was more demanding of him at the moment, he also couldn’t blame him for reacting like any sane straight man would, even he was finding himself applying extra effort in moving his gaze on from the woman.

Further down the table was a few nobles that he recognised, the main one of note being Duke Alphonse Winchester who was in charge of the southern duchy of Vale. Alphonse was near the top of Qrow’s shit list of nobles, likely why he had not been invited to this particular meal by his father. The Duke was a known racist, mostly due to following a religion that depicted humans as the dominant race on the Earth and displayed all types of Faunas as nothing but tools for humans to use and abuse as they saw fit, no better than animals. Qrow was relatively neutral on the point of Faunas rights, he saw and treated them just as he would a human but was not too interested in fighting with half of the nobles in Vale over the argument. No, what villainised the man to Qrow was his treatment of Summer when she had been around.

It was no secret that the Duke often tried to woo women into his bed with displays of wealth and promises of fortune in their futures. However, Summer had refused even before she and Qrow became involved. The Duke had at first considered it just her playing hard to get and so he continued to pursue her. Eventually, he caught on, after her repeated refusals, and resorted to paying the chefs to put aphrodisiacs in her food and paying her a late-night visit. Luckily Qrow had been on a visit and overheard the Duke talking about his plan to a close friend and decided to order take-out with his secret lover. When Alphonse had come to the door asking to see Summer, Qrow had knocked the tall man on his rear and threatened to hang him in the town square by his genitals for all to see. Unsurprisingly the Duke had stopped his advances on Summer, but he fought a shadow war with Qrow in court often disagreeing with the prince even on the simplest of manners.

Sat around the Duke were other minor nobles from within the southern dutchy, likely here to add testimony to the Dukes claims and reports. Alphonse was making no effort to hide his distaste as Qrow suppressed a growl at the man. For a moment nobody made a sound beyond slightly surprised grunts as both parties inspected the other. After a few more seconds Qrow’s father seemed to recover and took the initiative.

“Qrow, this had better be important; we were discussing important matters and…” He was abruptly cut off as the prince spoke the tinge of annoyed anger seeping into his voice.

“I am well aware what I have walked into, but I consider my business more important, and kindly invite Duke Alphonse to wait in the foyer whilst we discuss this matter.” Qrow gestured out of the door he had entered from which had two guards waiting to escort the Duke out.

Alphonse looked outraged and moved to protest but was immediately silenced as the king raised his hand and met his son’s gaze. Normally the king would be livid with someone speaking to him in this manner, but Qrow was so rarely motivated and his father saw a fire lit in his eyes which he only wished burned more often.

“Do as he says.” He spared a glance at Qrow’s two companions and locked eyes with his granddaughter who shifted and squirmed uncomfortably beneath the gaze. “Alphonse I will speak with you after this matter is sorted. We shall reconvene at breakfast, now go.” The king spoke softly but there was a steely hint of command in his voice, almost daring the Duke to cause a further scene. The Duke was many things, but he was not stupid and so quickly bid his polite farewells and left, levelling his gaze at Qrow and whispering something under his breath as he did so. After the Doors closed and the sound of footsteps disappeared Qrow decided to speak up. He turned to Raven something akin to rage building in his stomach as he saw Taiyang by her side.

“Did you know?” he was no longer supressing the guttural growl that had been gathering in his throat as he spoke. Raven, for her part, remained stone-faced but her eyes burned with slight panic, giving her away. She still tried to play it off and he needed her to say it.

“What on earth are you…” she was cut off as she watched the skeletal hands of his mark claw their way across his skin. He heard a slight, supressed gasp come from Winter as she beheld the spectacle for the first time. He paid her no mind.

“I said ‘DID YOU KNOW?!’” He bellowed causing them all to flinch under the force he was exerting. Bart was doing a good job of remaining angry rather than scared but couldn’t help but sweat as the overwhelming feeling of dread raked across his back. Raven didn’t back down, once she recovered, the black feathers of her own mark dancing along her skin. “DID YOU KNOW ABOUT SUMMER?!” Qrow’s breath grew heavy as he fought to hold himself in check. He turned to Taiyang. “And you; how did you get the child?!” Taiyang’s amusement at the scene died and his eyes widened as Qrow stared into him.

It was all the answer he needed. Qrow swung hard at the Mistralian man. The blonde moved to block the punch, but the sleeves of his shirt caught on the table preventing him from guarding in time. Taiyang was sent sailing towards the far wall from the strengthened blow. Qrow moved to follow up and Raven ran to help her husband, but the king abruptly stood up from his seat.

“Enough!” The command lacked the volume that Qrow’s shouts had held but felt just as powerful as the king quietly simmered in rage. Qrow turned to his father whilst his sister ran to Taiyang’s side. After a silent moment passed, the older man took a calming breath and levelled his gaze towards Qrow. “Qrow this had better be good for you to not only interrupt a business dinner, but to turn feral towards your own family.” Qrow felt the urge to spit as his father suggested that Taiyang was worth being considered his family. It was Bart that recovered first and he moved past the quivering Yang to speak.

“If I may your majesty.” As the king turned to face the professor his back straightened, and he fought the itch to take a nervous sip of coffee from his thermos which he still had in his left hand. After a short moment where the older man looked him over, measuring him almost, he nodded, and Bart continued.

“You see, we have reason to believe that your daughter and her husband have had a key hand in the disappearance of one Summer Rose.” Winter gasped loudly, no longer able to hold her emotions in check, causing everyone to look over to her. However, their attention was quickly ripped from the white princess back towards the king as they felt the earth rumble angrily beneath their feat. The king’s eyes were glowing red as he glared at Bart, who began shrinking slightly beneath the withering gaze. Softly and threateningly he spoke.

“You had best have some strong evidence, or a _very_ good doctor, for talking about my family in that manner.” Everyone else seemed to collectively gulp as the king pulled himself away from the table and towards the historian. Qrow inwardly praised the professor, a lesser man would have backed away or even soiled themselves under the sheer weight of the gaze he was under, and yet he stood there, trembling but determined. The king spoke again. “I suggest you start explaining.” Bart pulled at his tie slightly, as if trying to loosen it as the older man drew near and he nodded in agreement.

Many minutes later Bart had managed to show the king what had happened over the last twenty-four hours and what they had found using Ruby’s memory. For what felt like hours the king simply looked down towards the floor, a shadow hiding his expression, but his rage clear as the ground once again began to quake and shudder beneath their feet. He slowly turned to Winter.

“Princess Winter, I advise you leave. This is a family matter, and though I hope to one day call you family, I shall not burden you with watching what may transpire further here tonight.” His voice was strained as he held back his underlying emotions in a vain attempt to keep his calm in front of his guest. Winter moved to object but quickly thought otherwise as the King met her gaze, command and rage clear in his eyes. She bowed and moved to leave quickly. As she passed Bart, he felt nimble, delicate hands slip something into one of his coat pockets but chose not to draw attention to it at present. Once the door closed a switch seemed to flip, and the older man lost control, turning quickly on his feet to deliver a backhanded slap to Yang’s face.

“You foolish girl! Dow you have any idea how much damage you have caused tonight, to property, to people’s lives and to the family name?!” Yang looked terrified as she looked back up at her grandfather and Bart wisely took a step back from the scene as it unfolded before him. There was a protesting noise from Taiyang that died in his throat as the king spun to face him. “AND YOU! You had better give me some very good reasons as to why you gave Summer’s child, MY GRANDAUGHTER, to that MONSTER!” The sound of cracking marble rose to meet their ears as they noticed the floor begin to spider web with cracks and angrily rumble. He finally turned to Raven. “And you had better not have known about this!” his voice lacked its previous volume as he spoke, but the venomous undertone was just as deadly.

For a long moment Raven and Taiyang stood there in silence, unable to come up with something that would let them keep their heads. It was all he needed.

“Get out!” the older man thrust his hand towards the door as he spat the command. Both flinched as he spoke but neither made to move. Raven spoke up.

“Father, you can’t be serious. I…” She was interrupted as the ground beneath her feet violently shifted and flung her towards the open door.

“I said GET OUT!” Taiyang seemed to get the message faster than his wife and quickly made about picking her up and retreating from the room, swiftly followed by their daughter. For many minutes the king preformed breathing exercises to calm himself before he turned back to Bart. “I am sorry for the grief my family have caused you and yours. If there is anything I could do, please, let me know.” Bart quietly nodded but an idea sparked in his head. Was he asking too much? No, it was worth a shot. At worst he would get rejected.

“Actually, your majesty, there was a few things, if you do not mind of course.” The king studied him for what felt like an eternity before eventually gesturing for him to continue. “You see Hei Xiong, the man who owns our club and my friend, is currently in a… life-threatening state as a result of the bout with princess Yang. I was wondering if you knew of a way to save him.” For a moment the king looked shocked, but his face quickly softened as he considered.

“How old is your friend?” the question was harmless and to Bart seemed rather odd in the situation, but he moved to answer anyway. Qrow’ eyes widened as he caught his father’s meaning, but he said nothing, curious towards the outcome.

“Forty in a couple months.” Bart let his confusion show in his voice but decided not to press the king in his current state. The older man sighed a sad sigh as he shook his head. He eventually spoke up again.

“I’m sorry, he is too old to go through the only way I could think of saving him. I would propose that I marry him into my family and give him a mark as all my family do, but he is too old to undergo the ritual safely. Taiyang was the oldest to ever make it through the ritual and he was in his mid-twenties, and that was far from a clean and painless transition. The older you are the harder it is to fuse with Grimm blood, not to mention he wouldn’t have the resistance that my existing family have to the blood.” There was a long solemn silence as the three men stood taking in what had just been spoken. Eventually Bart nodded and made to leave, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder, he had expected to see Qrow when her turned around but was surprised to be met with the image of a regretful king.

“I mean it Bartholomew, if there is anything you or yours need, do not hesitate to ask.” Quietly Bart nodded, too tired and upset to say anything. As he walked to the door, he heard the king call towards him one more time. “Please prepare Ruby for a visit from both me and Qrow in two days. I think it time we both meet her, formally.” The professor was most of the way around the corner as he waved his agreement without turning around.

The historian thought of the paper that had been slipped into his pocket but decided it could wait until morning. Right now, he needed something strong, a lot stronger than coffee.


	12. Chapter 12

It was discomforting, the silence; her family had always been loud, they would cheer and holler when they were happy, they would shout and curse when they angry or worked up and they would laugh and jeer at one another when they bantered. They were never quiet, and yet, since she had woken, Ruby had not heard a breath pass from their lips as they gathered in the large, luxury booth they used for gatherings. The loudest thing she had heard since waking had been doors opening and closing, the juddering of chairs and Melanie’s heels as she walked.

Nobody seemed to want to break the silence as they sat there in a morbid stupor and dwelled on the news the twins had broken to them just moments ago. Junior was likely to die, soon. For the better part of twenty minutes they had all just sat in uncomfortable muteness, and it pained the young girl’s heart to see everybody reduced so low. Yet, she felt the same and made no moves to speak up. Eventually Jax spoke up, deciding it time someone stepped on the delicate glass that was their mental states.

“So, what do we do?” He didn’t look up from the table as he spoke, and the words were further apart than his normal ‘no-nonsense’ tone would allow for. In truth Jax hoped someone would answer him with a glorious plan to help everyone recover, but he knew he was asking for too much. The others would likely look to him for direction and he hated it; he was no leader, that was Jun’s job, he was just a bouncer, a damn good one, but nothing more and yet he felt the weight of the building bear down onto his shoulders as they all raised their gazes towards him hopefully. Luckily, Joy had recovered from the slump and managed to slide into her usual mindset, but Ruby could see as her eyes fought to stay open from the struggle created by both her exhaustion and sorrow.

“More like, what can we do? I mean, it’s out of our hands. We just have to wait for Hei to wake up and see what he wants to do.” She paused for a moment and her eyes lowered again as she spoke, this time a lot less sure of her words. “Even if that is preparing to… continue on without him.” The silence was broken by the sharp sound of glass shattering. The room collectively turned to see Nora dropping shards of broken glass out of her palm, scotch dripping out from between her fingers. She looked ready to explode as she stared at Joy who looked a little surprised by the girl’s outburst. Nora was part of the family and everyone treated her as such, but she wouldn’t often speak in meetings, having no patience for business outside of getting paid for doing as she was told. The only occasions she would reliably voice her opinion on was matters concerning Ruby and herself, or possibly Ilia or the twins, though less often.

“How can you say that?” she practically spat the words at the older woman. Joy pulled back at the venom in her voice but narrowed her eyes as Nora spoke. “He isn’t even dead yet and you’re just giving up?” The shorter, older woman sat up in her seat as she levelled her own gaze towards the younger girl.

“I’m just saying what has to be said. The truth is that blonde bimbo of a Branwen has all but killed him and his time is limited. We all know what Hei is going to say when he wakes up, I’m just softening the blow now.” It was almost inaudible, but Ruby could hear a slight growl build up in Joy’s throat as she spoke, anger being lapped up by the rose that shifted on her arm as it prepared to bloom further. Nora abruptly stood and leaned over the table, glaring daggers at Joy.

“We don’t know if there is no way to extinguish the flames. You speak as if he is already both feet in the grave.” Her voice was raising in volume and slowly gaining an accusing tone. Joy mimicked the action of the younger girl but stood on her chair, so their heights were closer.

“And if there is a way then we will all be happy, but right now we don’t know if there is and from what the doctor, the BEST DOCTOR IN VALE, says, there isn’t much chance.” Joy’s voice was no longer tame, and her anger was clearly audible as she stared down the younger girl. “We’re dealing with Grimm marks here! We know nothing about these things, even with all the research Bart has been putting into it, WE. STILL. KNOW. NOTHING!” She gestured to the ginger girl as she continued. “Even you, who has a mark, know anything beyond that it lets you fry whole power grids. Not to mention, the girl that did this is third in line for the throne, if we don’t include Ruby, and so is leagues stronger than you in terms of your Grimm’s raw strength. Do you think we could simply stumble upon a method, that far surpasses the capabilities of modern medicine?” Ruby could sense the thrum of electricity as Nora fought to contain her power spiking with her emotions, the collar waiting to restrain its wearer. Nora actually growled as her irises turned red when she spoke.

“SO, WHAT!? You’re just going to give up?! You’re just going to watch him die?! You’re…” Nora was cut off as she was slapped sharply across the face by the shorter woman. Who openly snarled at her despite the air humming as it heated up around Nora.

“DON’T YOU DARE!” Joy hollered at the younger girl; breath ragged as she spoke. “Don’t you dare say for a second I have given up on him.” She spoke in a low warning rumble that had Nora listening to each word along with all the others gathered. “I have saved too many lives, healed too many wounds and suffered enough loses to have you question my devotion to this family. Who are YOU to tell ME whether or not I am giving up? I have been here since the beginning, since the orphanage shut down, since we bought this club, since you arrived on our doorstep with that white suited bastard. I have corrected hundreds of bones, dressed thousands of wounds and saved the lives of most people in this room at some point. I watched as Jax won his first fight and repaired the arm he broke doing so. I watched as Mavis picked her first pocket and begged beside her for the man that caught her to let her go. And most importantly I watched as Junior worked himself into illness to save money to buy a place for us all to live and nursed him each and every night he would pass out.” She trembled as she seethed, tears slipping quietly out of the side of her eyes as she spoke and pointed to each person she mentioned. “So, you tell me. Do you have the right to judge me for looking gravely on the situation? My oldest and best friend is going to die, and you would antagonise me for trying to soften the blow for my family?”

Nora’s eyes flickered between red and their natural blue as she looked down at the table, ignoring the stinging across her left cheek. The air calmed and Ruby could feel as the rose bloomed several heads from the exchange, the negative energy from the graveyard paled in comparison to the bounty the Grimm flower harvested as her family argued. Ruby slowly walked over and placed her hand or Nora’s shoulder, who looked up and saw her sister with a small sad smile and tilting her head towards Joy. After a moment the older sister nodded.

“I… I’m sorry. You’re right. It’s just don’t want to see it end you know. The club won’t be the same without him. I may not have known him that long when compared to the rest of you, but he is still important to me. He looked after me, gave me a place to live without Roman and he introduced me to all of you guys. My family.” Tears openly fell down the side of her face and she sat again before leaning into Jax wept at the situation. The room fell back into silence as Joy also sat down.

Ruby looked up and caught the gazes of her other sisters who all nodded their various supports as she breathed in preparing to speak. Ruby had rarely spoken in meetings, not for a lack of interest or value input but more because she simply liked to watch her family interact and just show her support when she was needed. This was possibly the first time she would breach a subject on her own and it was a little daunting, especially after the tirade that had just transpired.

“Let’s start small.” All the heads at the table looked up to her as she spoke, each showing her small smiles as some gestured for her to continue. “Mil, Mel, Ilia and I are supposed to attend Beacon in a week, but we can wait for a while, if need be, we can defer and get guaranteed places for next year so we can spend more time with Jun.” She proposed her statement calmly but all in the room could sense the sadness and fear in her voice. It was Jax who replied first.

“No.” The sisters looked up at him as he shook his head slowly before meeting Ruby’s gaze confidently. “We all know going to Beacon and earning Huntress qualifications has been you dream for years Squirt. Junior wouldn’t want to be the reason you waited any longer.” He received various grunts and hums of agreement from around the table. Ruby simply looked on in shock.

“But I’m applying two years early, it’s no big deal to wait a little longer, this is Jun’s life were talking about here. If something happened whilst I was at beacon… I don’t think I could forgive myself.” She looked forlornly at the floor as she spoke, imagining receiving a call one night that Jun had passed, and she had missed it. She was pulled from her dreaming as a gruff voice interjected.

“The last thing Jun wants is his last memory being a regret of you being held back on account of him.” Ruby moved to protest again but was silenced as he raised a hand and continued. “Besides you give the big man too little credit, even that ungodly flame ain’t going to have an easy time putting him down. Hell, he could probably still go several rounds with a bear even now.” There was a light chuckle that spread around the room as they all imagined him doing so. Jax laughed quietly to himself before speaking. “I may be the so-called ‘Man of Steel’ but in truth, if Jun had a semblance and a stronger aura, he could probably kick my ass on a bad day.” Ruby laughed at the image and moved to speak up once more.

“Thanks guys. I w…” she was abruptly cut off as Doctor peach burst into the room, clearly out of breath and sweating to the point of her pink hair matting to her face and she bent over to catch what little air she could. Noticing the attention on her she spoke up, wheezing between each word.

“He… he’s awake. Junior’s awake.” The room stilled in vapid tension before an audible click happened in all of their heads simultaneously. They all suddenly exploded into hurried movement out of the door as they scrambled to see the man they had just been talking about, all previous conversation forgotten.

* * *

Raven was livid. She was not used to failing, she had always won, the only exception being her annoyingly prodigious brother. Yet here she was pacing around the room letting her mind swim in terrible directions, thinking of worse and worse situations that may arise. She had told Taiyang to take Yang to bed and that she had some business to deal with before she joined them.

Of course, she had known where yang was going that night. Nothing happened in the city without her knowing it. Every royal had their spies and information brokers and each and every one of them answered to her on nothing but a vague promise of reward. Yet she had somehow managed come up surprised upon hearing of the night’s events from her daughter and the professor. Qrow’s brat had already possessed a mark and she had somehow not known. Not only that but the mark in question was apparently strong enough to bring her daughter to her knees without the girl even understanding it.

From what Yang had described to her, it seemed the girl’s mark had the potential to control another Grimm and perhaps even make them. The potential power of such an ability was, quite frankly, terrifying and Raven’s head was constantly fearing what the girl may do in redemption should she chose to. For once, being a Branwen didn’t seem to protect her from her adversary, in fact it seemed to make her harder to take down as she would be able to turn Raven’s own Grimm against her. The thought sent a shudder down her spine and she checked the mental image of her Grimm to make sure it was still within the cage she had forced it into, waiting for its masters call to use its power. It was. She let loose a breath she hadn’t realised she had been holding, allowing all her stress to fall away. Only to come rushing back as a snide voice came into the silence, she had found solace in.

“Looks like our future queen can be sent into panic by nought but a little girl. Funny, here I thought you were supposed to be the level-headed one between you and Qrow.” Raven spun around to face the white suited man as he mocked her. She fought back a hiss at his words but settled at narrowing her eyes at him as he made himself comfortable in her antique armchair. Roman rolled his eyes at her display and continued. “Yes, yes, I get it, you hate me, well you can get in line, but that’s not why I am here now is it.” He nonchalantly lit a cigar as she growled at him.

“What the fuck Roman?!” he winced slightly as she shouted at him, luckily the walls were soundproof, and they wouldn’t be overheard. “I sent Yang into that club expecting Qrow’s bastard to be nothing but a street thug with weak mark and a lot of aura! Yet the next thing I hear about the incident is my brother coming home with my daughter, who looked like she’d gotten into a fight with a meteor, along with some professor from Beacon who then informed my father of her existence! So, what, pray tell, is stopping me from killing you here and now?!” Roman raised his hands in mock surrender but rolled his eyes again at her tirade.

“Forgive me Raven for thinking your daughter would be more capable. From what I heard she had to use her mark just to beat the other club staff, which by the way didn’t include either Jax, the best fighter, or Nora, the other marked.” There was a long awkward silence as raven allowed her anger to die down. Roman used the opportunity to speak again. “Besides, it doesn’t really matter, Yang can’t be seen killing people, a fight at a bar under the influence, maybe. Murder though, not so easy to brush off.” Raven sighed but nodded. It was true Yang had only been the guinea pig, to see what they were up against in the near future, but it still hurt Raven’s pride as a mother to hear of her Daughter’s failure in what she assumed would be certain victory.

“You’re right. Speaking of which, how is your little martyr coming along. I didn’t give the girl a Grimm mark just so you could use her as you see fit. She is here to kill the brat and if she lives, she’s all yours, but until then she is to focus on the objective.” Roman waved her off as if she was nagging him about something trivial.

“She’s coming along fine; everything is going according to plan.” She nodded as he spoken and hummed as he supplied her with the correct answer.

“Good, good. That is all, good night.” She pointed a glare at him which made it perfectly obvious that was his que to leave and so with more energy then she had thought possible he stood up and made a crude mocking bow before slowly sinking into the flow.

“Good night your highness.” She could see the smirk glinting out from beneath his hat but lacked the energy to berate him for having it. She shook her head before walking towards her bedchambers once he had disappeared from sight. As she pondered on the night’s events a malicious smirk cracked across her lips as she was greeted with a pleasant thought. At least Yang had caused some lasting damage.


	13. Chapter 13

Junior had always been resilient, ever since he had started sleeping properly after he had scrounged enough money for the building that was now his club, he had rarely fallen ill or taken many injuries. He may not have possessed an aura or a semblance like so many others in his family did, yet he did not shy away from even the most daunting of tasks. He was big and he used his size well, often putting several overconfident thugs on their backs without breaking a sweat. He was smart, not the bookish kind of smart that people had come to expect from Bart, but the intuition kind of smart that allowed him to barter with the best of them and avoid any hidden dangers that were hidden within agreements or plans from other gangs. However, what mattered most was his determination; he never gave up, where others might back out or fold, he instead stayed the course and pushed forward on sheer brute willpower if nothing else. When he was young, he was called foolhardy and stubborn, but he would do it all again if it meant that he would give his family a chance to end up even half as well as they were now.

So, it had been a new feeling, when he woke up in pain. No, that wasn’t true. It was more like an old friend that had come to visit him as he lay there in the hospital bed. His blood felt like it was on fire when he moved, and he could only sit up with the support of the bed’s adjustment feature and not with his own strength. He hated it, relying on something else to do things. Even as a child he would often not bother the others with jobs and business unless he absolutely needed to, even if it meant he would have to push himself beyond what his body could keep up with healthily. Joy had always scolded him for doing so if she found out, but he wouldn’t listen, and probably still wouldn’t if it weren’t for their insistence in being kept in the loop.

However, the pain that tore at his body was nothing compared to the pain that rent his heart as his family had come rushing to his bedside, bombarding him with questions and worry. It hurt him, to see them reduced to this state on his account; he wasn’t supposed to fall, he wasn’t supposed to need help, he had to be the one giving help. He couldn’t help but quietly hate himself as the twins ran to his side with tears flowing freely from their eyes. One after another the various club members input their piece on his condition and their feelings towards him. Some passed jokes about him being too damn stubborn to die, others wept in a mixture of joy or sorrow and some simply played of other’s remarks. It had been the best part of an hour before he had attempted to clear his throat and get their attention, he had coughed and spluttered instead, but Jax caught the meaning and whistled loudly to get everyone to shut up. Junior nodded to his friend in thanks before licking his cracked, dry lips and speaking.

“Thank you, all of you, for coming and seeing me. I assure you I’ll be fine and I’ll be back in the club by the end of the week, but there is somethings I must talk about with some of you, and I think it best I do so privately before talking to the rest of you about it.” He received various nods of assent or understanding and began filling out, with only Jax, the twins, Joy, Nora and Ilia staying behind. Junior frowned as Ruby turned to leave with the others but was stopped by Jax who had noticed Junior’s gaze and rested a hand on Ruby’s shoulder. Junior was worried; Ruby hadn’t come up to him at any point in the last hour, simply looking guilty in the back as she wall-flowered near the door. He felt the need to clench his fist, but the drip feeder in his hand stopped his muscles from closing fully, leaving his hands in a tense claw like pose. When the door finally closed, Junior moved to speak again, though he swallowed as if struggling for words before doing so and was interrupted before he could form his sentence.

“I-I’m sorry!” The room turned to look at Ruby who was looking towards the floor as tears began to drip from her eyes. “I’m so, so sorry!” Most of the room was looking at her confused as she broke down and was mostly being held up by Jax. Junior understood, the others had been unconscious or not at the club during the incident, but he understood. She felt guilty for not reacting in time, for forcing him to have to get in the way, for failing to protect her family when she had the power to do so. After all, he would feel the same. Ruby had grown up to be a lot like his younger self, she wanted things, badly enough to put her mind and body on the line to get them, but she would never let herself put her own needs above those she cared for.

Over the last eight years, the people collected in the room a become accustomed to feeling death run its cold, merciless talons down their spines. Ruby’s mark remained largely a mystery, even after years of testing and research, but there was one thing they did know, it was powered by emotion. Negative emotions held varying levels of power when creating Grimm; small common griefs would give only a small amount to her reserves for making Grimm and as the feeling grew stronger, more heartfelt, more negative and powerful, it would give her increasingly more and more power. However, her own emotions had always been the greatest catalyst, her trauma from Apep often giving her enough power to summon a small army of tall lupine Grimm, or Beowolves as they were known. A friend of hers had died when he had been involved in a small-time gang-war and her sorrow and grief had given Junior the overbearing feeling of death calling his name, and he could have sworn red, hungry eyes had dwelled in the shadows of his apartment, only to be dispelled a moment later. Junior could almost hear the Reaper himself sharpen his scythe as the girl wept in front of him, an underlying sense of dread setting in.

“Ruby!” Junior fell into a fit of coughing after the short outburst, his body screaming at him for straightening enough to add volume to his otherwise croaky voice. The girl in question momentarily stopped her descent in sorrow and looked up at him, her eyes flickering almost imperceptibly between their usual calm, dark red hue and that of the bright red of a marked. He swallowed, restraining a wince at doing so, before he continued to speak. “Do not blame yourself for what happened, if you must blame someone, blame me. I was stupid enough to get in the way of that punch without an aura to protect me.” He looked down, his voice dropping in volume as he trembled slightly from strain. “But, I would do it again.” Ruby slowly crept closer to him before speaking herself.

“But it was my fault. All I had to do to stop that was…” She was cut off by Junior raising his voice slightly, though not enough to compare to his regular volume.

“And you have no idea what could have happened. We were lucky Bart had arrived with the prince in time to subdue you, or you could have been a murderer. You know better than anyone, I’ll support you in any and everything you do, but I will always do what I think is best for you and your sisters. Even if that means I do things you don’t like at times.” Ruby nodded and the room remained in solemn silence for a few moments before she moved up and embraced him as gently as she could manage as to not harm him further, which Junior returned. Nobody in the room was surprised, growing up with Nora had broken Ruby’s fear of contact and turned her into someone who used physical contact to show affection often. Her sisters couldn’t help but smile as they watched the exchange and even Jax, though he would never admit to it, felt his shoulder slump and lips turn upwards, Nora noticed and would tease him later.

After a moment Junior applied a small amount of pressure to her shoulders, indicating that he needed her to get off of him so he could correct his posture to speak properly, or as close to properly as he could. She did so, leaving him to slowly survey the room with a hint of pride and sorrow in his eyes as he did so. Melanie moved to say something but stopped when she saw him open his mouth, respectful of the effort it took him.

“What I’m about to say,” he began gaining the room’s undivided attention and prompting Nora to lean against the door so nobody else could enter, “some of you may not like.” The sombre curiosity was practically tangible as ideas fearing the worst flew between the minds of his gathered family. He took a long, agonising breath, closing his eyes for several seconds when doing so, before opening his eyes with confidence to deliver his message. “I have told my attorney to prepare to rewrite my will with me tomorrow”. The room collectively flinched as the statement fell on their ears. Melanie was the first recover.

“Jun you can’t be serious. You’ll…” she was cut off as he raised a hand and coughed. He levelled his gaze at his gathered family, a stern but mourning look was plastered against his face.

“I know Melanie, but the fact is there is currently no way I survive the month, if that long. It’s best I do this before it’s too late and you all deserve to know how this will impact you.” He moved to continue after a moment, but it was his turn to be cut off as raised her voice.

“I don’t want to know how it will affect me; I want you to live damnit!” Miltia moved over to support and embrace her sister as she broke down. She sniffled before continuing. “Y-you can’t go, I won’t let you act like you will, you’re going to pull through, I know you can!” for a long moment the only sound in the room was Melanie’s sobbing and occasional hushing from her twin. Though they didn’t make sound Junior could tell Ilia and Ruby were either crying or close to doing so themselves. He took a deep breath before sitting up straight in his bed, fighting past the excruciating pain that shot like lava through his torso.

“Mel, I want you to know that I’m not giving up. You know me better than that, I will fight this until either it or I have nothing left to give, but you must understand, I must do what I have to, in order to make sure everything is taken care of should things go south.” He paused looking sadly at each and every one of his gathered family before finally resting his gaze on his four ‘daughters’. For the first time in their lives the girls saw what seemed to be the beginnings of tears form at the edges of his eyes. “I didn’t want it to end like this. I wanted to see you all grow up, to see my girls go into the world and show ‘em who’s boss, what you’re really made of. I wanted to see Ruby become the world’s best huntress and be free to use her powers as she wished. I wanted to see Ilia finally find someone who could give her as much as she was willing to give them and to watch her stop hiding from people outside the family. I wanted to watch as Nora and Jax stopped pussyfooting around each other and came clean to the rest of us so we could stop pretending we didn’t know.” The comment drew a choked giggle from the ginger girl as she pressed against Jax. “And I wanted to watch as you all made Apep pay for what he put you through.” He paused to swallow thickly, phlegm catching in his throat as he leant forward and tried to hide the water leaking from his eyes. “But I might not get to. So please… just let me do what I can for you… whilst I still can.” He trailed off, no longer bothering to hide the puffy red skin around his eyes.

Ruby felt something shift along her forearm but paid it no mind as she and her sisters moved forward to embrace their adopted father, being gentle as to not upset his wound further. Inwardly Ruby cursed the blonde for bringing a man who had fought so, so hard for himself and his family to this point. The moment passed as she ruffled his hair as he embraced the four of them, before he eventually shifted, indicating he wanted to keep speaking. He turned to Jax.

“I’m leaving the club in your name.” before Jax could protest he continued. “The club, the complex, the warehouse, all of it, to you. You’re the best at leading after me, you may not be the most level-headed, but hopefully the others can help you with that. Whether they know it or not I see the others look up to you and follow you, it was nice knowing you would always be behind me, so I don’t think anyone will contest me on this.” There was a unanimous nod from everyone in the room except Jax who just looked stunned. Junior continued, turning to Joy.

“Joy, you’ve helped me from the start. Stayed with me when I passed out, nursed me when I was sick and kept the rest of the idiots in good health and mind when I wasn’t around. I’m leaving you a small fortune to do what you wish with. It’s not as much as I would like to give you, but I’m sure Jax will need you for a long time when he runs the club, you have my permission to smack him behind the ear on my behalf.” A weak and sad chuckle left the older woman’s mouth as Junior moved to look at Ilia.

“Ilia, though I may not see you as often as the others, be it due to you hiding from sight or being out on training with Mavis, I want to help as much as I can. You’ve always dreamed of helping with faunas’ rights and being a part of the stealth division of the hunters. So, I leave to you a small fortune and a few ledgers with some personal contacts, the contents of which I think you will find helpful in doing both things.” The younger girl nodded but tightened her grip on his hand. He smiled sadly before looking at Nora.

“Nora, I must admit, I wasn’t sure what to leave to you, but I hope alongside Jax you can help lead the club in the future.” He glanced playfully at his friend, “Put a leash on him for me, yeah?” The ginger gave him a sad nod, which he returned before continuing. “Also, the key to the liquor cabinet in my kitchen is under my mattress.” He winked at her but failed to suppress the wince as he leaned into it too much. Nora chuckled before thanking him. Junior slowly moved his gaze to the twins who were barely recovering from their mourning.

“I want you two to know that I’m sorry for not being the best father figure growing up, and if there is one thing I regret, it’s not spending more time with you two when you were younger. I hope you can forgive me.” He looked down, waiting for a reply but was surprised when he felt two pairs of arms embrace him again. Miltia spoke up though her voice was slightly muffled as her face was pressed close to his hospital gown.

“You were the best we could have ever hoped for, don’t you dare regret a single thing you did. We took pride in knowing that you did whatever was best for everyone, even at your own expense. It made every moment more special, knowing that when you had nothing to do, we were important enough to deserve some of your time. You gave us a home, a family and a future. Thank you. Thank you so much.” Occasionally Miltia had drifted off of her sentence but Melanie had flawlessly filled every gap she left just in time for Miltia to pick back up. He firmly returned the embrace before speaking again.

“To you two, I leave my remaining fortune along with ownership of the club once Jax decides to step down. I am so, so proud of you two, how you’ve grown and how you will grow more. In my bedside cabinet I have stockpiled any and all information on Apep that may be useful to you. It isn’t much, but it’s something I planned to give you after your time at Beacon.” He waited for them to give their agreements, though they were slow and between ragged breaths. Eventually satisfied he locked eyes with Ruby, who was openly weeping at the scene she found herself in, her eyes red for reasons other than her eye colour.

“That leaves you, Ruby. It’s to you I feel I owe the most in recent memory.” She opened her mouth to reply but he continued on, fearing he wouldn’t have the strength to continue if he stopped now. “What I have given you has taken me many years to locate and I was waiting to see you off to Beacon to give them to you, along with your weapons like your sisters before you. On your birthday, you will find out what I have left for you. I pray that you can forgive me for doing what I have to you.” She once again moved to stop him, but he powered through. “I know it hurts Ruby.” His knuckles whitened around his blanket as the thought ran through his mind. “I know that it hurts to keep holding back, to always have to pretend that you’re average and I know that you hold back, even without summoning Grimm.” He drew a ragged breath. “But that is why I want you to walk away from this free.” He received confused looks before he continued. “Ruby, as of today you are free to use your mark as you see fit. I trust you to be sensible and not to abuse your power. The royal family know who and what you are now, there is no need to hide anymore.”

He could feel darkness pulling at the edges of his vision, overexerting himself after waking had taken its toll and his conscious was slipping, but as he lost colour from his sight, he managed to find the strength to smile, wholeheartedly at her and speak. “Give ‘em hell girl… give ‘em hell.” He slipped from conscious and fell back as into his pillows comforting embrace. The sisters broke down once more.


	14. Chapter 14

Rook Branwen, King of Vale, patriarch of the Branwen family and currently pissed off father of two, was pacing back and forth in the foyer of his house. The fated day had come, and now he was left waiting impatiently for his damnable son to recover from the previous night’s stupor and meet him so they could leave to meet his long-lost granddaughter, who he had found out existed only two days ago.

The king would like to think that he had been a good father, he had allowed his children freedom where it was necessary, but remained firm over matters that determined the family’s future, such as forcing Qrow to accept tutoring in the off chance his mark couldn’t help him. However, his children seemed to have an irrepressible desire to irk him and produce an unholy amount of migraines.

First off, his oldest, Qrow, had historically been difficult. He would skip family duties to go of galivanting around the city, often re-appearing in the early hours of the following morning with an attractive young woman on his arm and the smell of alcohol polluting the air around him. It had been nothing short of a miracle that the Atlesian royalty had accepted his proposal to marry Winter and Qrow, not to mention the fact that the Schnee princess hadn’t become enraged when she found out about her fiancé’s night-time antics. He, honestly, felt pity for the woman, she was certainly attractive, intelligent and, from what guards had told him, could put most would be assassins on their backs without even slightly ruffling her clothes. Truly, he felt she was wasted on his son; he had known of Qrow’s attraction to Summer and he had honestly condoned of their union, but unfortunately fate was cruel, both to the would be lovers and the young princess who was tasked with filling the role of the deceased.

Summer was a solemn memory, even for him. She was truly everything he had hoped for his son. She was strong, smart, beautiful but most importantly she gave him a purpose, a drive and someone who understood him. Summer was to date the only person that had seemingly been immune to Qrow’s mark and nobody knew why, but that didn’t matter to the king; with her around his son tried to get better, to improve and for once did not think himself untouchable. Rook had even been trying his hardest to make their relationship work. He had forged her family history, paying huge sums of money to legal teams to create a fake ancient tie into royalty so that she could be named a noble woman and Qrow would be able to stop hiding his relationship with her. It had come so close, but tragedy had come before his son had felt safe to broach the topic.

The distressed king let out a heavy sigh at the memories that flared up in his mind as he thought over the past events his family had danced through. He glanced up at an oil painting adorning the wall opposite the huge spruce doors that served as the main entrance into his house. The picture showed off his family when his children had been little more than excitable children and, despite himself and his current mental stress, he let a small sad smile creep across his face. Times had been simpler when he had to convince his children to stay still long enough to have their picture taken so the painter could work. His gaze fell to the picture of his daughter and his mood dropped perceptibly.

Raven was different from Qrow. Ironically the twins had been born little more than seconds apart and yet they came out like day and night. Raven had always been ambitious, even before she fully understood what was needed from her in future, she had stood tall and proud whilst she exclaimed to the world that she would one day rule Vale and be known as the best queen to ever exist. The king could never shake the feeling that he had failed her; she’d had such bright light in her crimson eyes when she was younger, such hope and spirit. Yet he had crushed it once he proclaimed Qrow as his heir once the twins turned thirteen.

It had been after they had gone through the ritual of obtaining Grimm marks, and Qrow’s power had been realised, that Rook had made the decision. A part of him regretted his decision more than he could ever imagine, but another knew it seemed like the right decision at the time. Qrow had always been prodigious, even before his mark, add in the power he obtained that day and it had seemed obvious at the time. However, his talent combined with his power had sucked the life from his son. He couldn’t blame him, life was easy enough for the family, let alone when luck itself seemed to make sure you couldn’t fail. Qrow had taken to trying to fail and could never do it.

At first Raven had taken it hard, but never gave up, instead resolving herself to simply try harder to overcome her brother’s talent, training harder, longer and more viciously than her twin. However, after she had challenged him when they turned nineteen… the defeat had been… overwhelming. Qrow had already fallen into his careless and loose lifestyle by that point and had turned up to the challenge drunk and exhausted from a night on the town, and yet she couldn’t hit him even once. He had stumbled and stammered out of every perfect strike she threw and each precise swing she had flourished before him. She had grown tired and sloppy after long minutes of the display, before eventually making a mistake, his mark had shown no mercy and Qrow had fallen on his sister elbow first, after tripping, and planted it firmly in her gut, knocking the wind from her and rendering her unable to continue. Rook knew it had been that day that had truly destroyed his daughters hope and he truly hated fate in that moment; as his daughter was brought low by her brother who had hardly a clue what was happening around him and was not even taking her seriously. He couldn’t help but blame himself; he had been greedy, put the family’s progression over the choices of his children and never considered how this would affect them.

He once again shifted his gaze over to the depiction of his wife who stood beside him as he sat with his children on his knees. She had been taller than himself, long flowing red hair cascading down her back, highlighting her emerald green eyes that held so much more warmth than he had deserved. He had been lucky; so many arranged marriages were strained at even the best of times, but he had been blessed, seemingly by the gods themselves when he had first met her. She had been gentle and caring in a world that had only shown him and his family fear and distain in the recent times of war. She truly was more than he felt he deserved, and he could feel his eyes twitching as memories of happier times came back to him. He faked wiping something out of his eye as he fiddled to keep his cheeks dry before slowly chuckling.

“Oh, what have I done Robyn. Our children have grown and here I am, bawling like a babe. I’m too old to be doing things like this…” he was cut off by a gravelly voice behind him that he hadn’t heard approached.

“Sometimes I wonder if I have grown, but I agree… you are old.” Rook huffed a small laugh as he turned to see his son, for once well dressed and free of the alcohol that usually clung to him like a rancid cheap perfume. Rook couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow as he beheld Qrow in the best state he had seen him in years. The prince seemed to catch on quickly and now chuckled himself. “Hey, I can clean up nicely when I want to, besides, aren’t you the one who said first impressions are the most important?” the king simply donned a knowing smile, understanding that his son was growing more nervous by the minute. Qrow often wouldn’t care about impressions in most cases, but he had seemingly decided that his long-lost daughter deserved better than to meet him in his usual state.

“Oh? So, you finally listen to your old man after this long? To think I had to practically have one foot in the grave for you for you to do so. Maybe, when I’m gone, you’ll finally become a half decent king after all.” His tone made it clear he was jesting, but his son seemed to look downcast before returning the smile his father wore. Rook understood, he wasn’t the only one who felt regret for what Raven had become, but the king also knew that his son was still livid at his sibling and so decided not to broach the subject, he too had to practically knock himself out to sleep that night.

“You were hardly an outstanding and strait-laced man yourself at my age.” The smile his son wore was genuine and for a moment the king was happy to share banter with Qrow.

“True, however, I had already fought half an army when I was your age, so consider it a reward for doing such.” Rook quipped as they walked out of the large spruce doors and into the Limousine that awaited them in the courtyard. Qrow seemed to shake his head as if deciding the validity of the excuse before replying.

“You know, I’m still convinced you payed those poor bastards to fall on their blades, I mean how else could an old softy like yourself come out of that with little more than broken arm?” Qrow grinned mischievously as he sat in the leather seat opposite his father as the car drove off. His father scoffed before meeting his gaze with his own.

“Well, this ‘old softy’ has half a mind to bend you over his knee and discipline you like the child you pretend to be.” They both paused as the challenge hung in the air before they both let out small controlled laughs and let silence once again claim the interior of the vehicle as it drove out of the estate. After a few minutes of careful and detailed inspection of the local architecture that they both had seen millions of times, their gazes met again, and this time Rook was more serious.

“So, what is she like? Ruby I mean.” For a moment Qrow simply looked at his father blankly before speaking. He sighed as if trying his hardest to consolidate his memories of the night. He didn’t have to try very hard; the memory having been plaguing his mind like an obsession over the last two nights.

“Honestly, I’m not sure; what little of her I saw was not under the best conditions. Physically she looks just like Summer, albeit she’s a bit taller than I imagine Summer was at that age and she has red eyes unlike her mother’s silver.” His father nodded, picturing the girl in his head to the best of his ability, but the prince continued. “In terms of her mark, I honestly don’t know. I felt her anger from entire city blocks away, my Grimm felt as if it was thrashing within me, as if it wanted to go to her more than I did. What I saw when I got there, was something else. She had Yang beaten like little more than a ragdoll, but she turned Yang’s Grimm against her, I watched as Yang’s own flames consumed her.” Rook seemed visibly shook at the idea of his Grimm turning on him but looked up as his son laid down his finale remark, the sentence piercing his core. “When I knocked her out… it was hard. _I_ knocked her out, my mark didn’t even dare raise a claw to help me, in fact I felt it resist my every command as I forced my body to save my niece from her fate at Ruby’s hands.” The king supressed a gulp at the thought of his son struggling with a task. It made sense that Summer’s daughter could bypass Qrow’s mark, like her mother before her, but it only raised the question; Why? Not to mention the child had seemingly gone beyond ignoring the mark seemingly even bend it to her whims over even the mark bearer’s themselves.

Their collective pondering was halted as the car slowed to a stop, revealing the street that lead up to the club and various other buildings that the club owned in the surrounding area. The time had seemingly come, and it was with bated breath they made their way to meeting point where their new family member awaited.

* * *

Ruby was panicking. At first she had been composed and managed to keep calm for the first few hours of her morning, but that had quickly changed when she had seen her uncle Bart just an hour before the meeting. When he had told her that the Branwens wanted to meet her she had been sceptical and had considered declining, however, her family had convinced her that she should at least give her would be father and grandfather a chance. Ruby’s confidence had quickly depleted as more and more of her family informed her that they couldn’t be with her during the meeting. Bart had said something about having to see someone very important and had been dressed as if he planned to attend an opera. The twins and Ilia had gone to Beacon to their final test to determine rankings amongst the new initiates, Ruby would have to take this test tomorrow, unfortunately she had to take a test on the day of her birthday, which far from her idea of a sweet sixteenth.

Nora had offered to join her, but Raijin said that he didn’t feel like she should be around the Branwens and should instead let them focus on Ruby rather than another marked they had previously not known about. Reluctantly Nora had agreed, and Ruby couldn’t blame her. Jax had gone to the edges of the city, saying something about having to beat some sense into someone overstepping their territory’s bounds.

So, it was with trepidation and nervousness that she now stood by the door as she heard a car pull into the driveway to Junior’s ‘apartment building’, which had actually been a four star hotel he had bought out when its original owner complained about the noise emanating from the neighbouring club. She quickly ran to a nearby mirror in the second-floor suite she used as a room and living space. She had never been one that cared about other people’s opinions on the subject of her looks, but she couldn’t help but feel antsy about making a good impression on the royals that she could now hear walk down the well preserved stone path up to the building’s main entrance. One of her bangs fell over her right eye as she shook her head in an attempt to psyche herself up and she blew it out of the way as she looked herself over.

She wore a long red cheongsam, not unlike the ones she wore at the club, the difference being this one was a lot more expensive and had black roses depicted down its side rather than the golden cherry blossoms that adorned the other. It had been a gift from the twins for her fourteenth, and though she could feel a slight draft from where it maybe should have reached a little lower down her legs, due to being intended for her younger self, it was the smartest thing she owned and so she made do. Thankfully, she wasn’t showing too much skin thanks to the black thigh length socks that reached far up her long legs. She’d read stories of how royalty didn’t like women showing off their skin too much and, though she didn’t know how much faith she put in the tales, she wasn’t willing to take the gamble in this particular case. _Oh, who am I kidding? I am in way over my head! I mean how am I supposed to react?! ‘Oh, hey dad. I see you brought grandfather, jolly spiffing how about some tea whilst we discuss what the absolute living hell our relationship is supposed to be after nearly sixteen years?!’_ She moved to continue her mental tirade with herself when a voice drew attention to her door accompanied by a careful but firm knock.

“Excuse me… may we come in?” the voice was old and gravelly but held a sense of pride and curiosity that seemed to almost seamlessly hide his anxiousness. Spending time in the club had taught Ruby to dig deeper into how people spoke, often those that didn’t have any hesitation in their voices were bad news and shouldn’t be taken up on ANY offers despite how harmless they may seem. Yet as she heard this voice, she could tell he wanted nothing more than to move at a pace she was comfortable with. She snapped herself out of her stupor and hurried over to the door a faint red tint colouring her cheeks over her lack of spatial awareness. Her living space had been hurriedly cleared that morning and, though she was happy with the results, she prayed they did not open any closets, lest she lose the royals in an avalanche of underwear and other clothing articles. She had lost herself in thought again and was not paying attention to her subconscious actions. Soon she stood opposite her visitors and wasn’t prepared for what was on the other side of her door.

The pair of men that stood in the hallway had not been what she had expected. The first was of average height, perhaps having shrunk slightly from his prime, but built like a warrior, his black suit fitting comfortably around his thickly muscled arms. She did notice some parts of the suit seemed more strained than others, perhaps hinting that he hadn’t kept his form as powerful as it had once been. He had short, groomed black hair, but stray white and grey hairs rebelled amongst the mop and displayed his age. His eyes were of a deep calm red that she knew was signature of all the Grimm marked. Unlike Nora, who could turn her eyes red when she activated her mark, those who underwent the Branwen ritual wouldn’t be able to regain their original eye colour and instead adopted the blood red of the Grimm. The older man had a similar look of shock on his face as they beheld each other, but she could see something else, something that caught the light of the chandelier in the room. Warmth, recognition… sorrow.

The second was taller than his older counterpart and she could immediately tell they were closely related; their noses and jawlines were the same along with the obvious traits like dark hair colour and crimson eyes. He notably wore his suit more loosely, the top button of his shirt undone, and cuffs rolled back to reveal moderately muscled forearms, most likely maintained out of necessity rather than personal desire. For lack of a better word, Ruby thought he was… scruffy. He reminded her a lot of uncle Bart, someone who wore smart clothes and was actually rather handsome when he cleaned up, but often threw people’s opinions to the wind, either so he could get on with what he wanted to do or simply forgetting that he was supposed to care. It wasn’t with revelry or fear that she shared a gaze with her father, but instead, a sad understanding that permeated between them. It was the older man that spoke first, a slight tremble filling his voice as he began.

“R-Ruby?” the question was asked honestly, and he notably breathed in through his nose as he spoke as if opening his mouth for too long would break some invisible barrier that he had erected. For an eternal moment she did not reply simply fumbling over words to reply with before settling with a slight but clear nod. He reciprocated the nod, mulling over the response before something seemed to light up at the edges of his eyes and he donned a warm smile. “It’s… nice to see your doing well…” She returned his smile but, before either of them could continue speaking, the man she presumed her father interrupted.

“You have some pretty freaky jewellery there kiddo.” The statement was said in a slightly playful tone, implying he meant no actual offence, but she could hear a slightly concerned hint quietly weave its way into his words. At first, she looked at him confused before he nodded at her right arm where the Grimm rose was on full display. It had grown considerably in the past couple days, now extending itself most of the way to her shoulder and bearing many bloomed heads along with several buds along its vined length. She often forgot that people outside of the club didn’t know what it was, club goers just assumed it to be some outrageous attempt at being unique from a teenage girl, but her family knew better. Over the years they had figured out that the rose’s growth directly tied into the amount of emotions Ruby had passively absorbed and served as a small container for the excess that ruby’s body itself could not contain. They had tried to remove it but, similar to Nora’s collar, anyone who got close was attacked and ruby herself didn’t have the strength or understanding to remove it herself. Ruby looked back to Qrow.

“Yeah, it’s actually something I hoped you may be able to help me with.” Both men gave her a slightly puzzled look but nodded slowly as the hallway fell silent for a few moments. Ruby mentally slapped herself and moved away from the threshold to allow her guests through. “Oh, sorry. Would you like to come in?” The older man smiled again and chuckled softly as he took her invitation. Qrow seemed to hesitate, but after a moment of private contemplation he followed his father through the doorway.

After closing the door Ruby lead them to her dining room which she prayed she’d remembered to clean and did the washing up for. Luckily, she had, and the two men couldn’t help but be mildly impressed at the girl’s living space, each passing an offhanded comment about her cleanliness. Her conscience screamed at her as she lied through her teeth about cleaning her room often. In order to keep herself moving and occupied for as long as possible; so, she could process what was happening, she decided to make tea, asking her guests if they wanted any. They had both accepted and told her their respective preferred brews, and she immediately regretted the decision. Now she felt like her tea making was being judged and her mind couldn’t but revert back to the old movies where the princess was judged by her ability to entertain guests.

However, as if sensing her unease, an older figure appeared next to her and began preparing the tea she had offered to them. She moved to protest but he raised a finger as he began boiling the water.

“Calm down my dear.” He placed a hand gently on the side of her left arm, slightly afraid of the rose that moved slowly on her right and moved his thumb calmly along her shoulder. “We aren’t here to judge you, we’re here to apologise for what we and our family, directly or not, has done.” He moved her hand from the counter and held it between his own as he met her gaze. “Why don’t you go and get comfortable whilst I finish here? Then, we can talk about what we are to each other, and how to proceed from here.” The suggestion hung in the air and began to stale as she paused. After a long moment she nervously ran her tongue over her lips and nodded, returning to the dining room and took seat opposite the prince who offered her a small comforting smile of his own, though she could see he was more conflicted than his father. Soon the king returned from the kitchen with a tray holding up three mugs of tea, something Ruby never thought she would experience, but was grateful for all the same. Ruby couldn’t bear to let her hesitation allow silence to swallow the room again and so spoke up as soon as the older man sat beside his son.

“I’m sorry for what I did to that blonde girl.” She blurted suddenly causing both of the men to raise their eyebrows at the claim. Ruby continued. “It’s just she was attacking my sisters and she was scary and then Jun…” she trailed off as the memory of Yang’s fist emerging through Junior’s upper torso played again in her head. Both men felt a sense of dread run up the back of their necks and shivered as they watched the rose on her arm quietly writhe and another bud bloom into a rose head. “I j-just lost control and… I don’t really remember what happened next but I remember seeing her screaming and asking me to stop, but I was just so angry a-and scared…” she was hushed as Qrow put his hands on her own and he met her gaze truly for the first since he had arrived. She saw a cold steel burn in the back of his eyes, scaring her a little, his stoic face doing nothing to quell the determination behind his blood red irises.

“Don’t blame yourself for that. I understand; I may not seem like much, but family is all that really matters to me. Sure, I may indulge myself in my vices more than I should, but the only thing I can’t replace or buy more of… is family. If someone tried to take them from me… I would do what you did, and I know, that no matter how much regret I would have afterwards, I would do it over and over again.” His eyes never faltered as they locked eyes, but she could hear, as his voice growled slightly, he was angry, at what or who she didn’t know but the ire was unmistakable.

“But… she was your family…” she was cut off as his eyes narrowed slightly and she suppressed a gulp as he beheld her. Finally, he seemed to soften before speaking

“And so are you.” Ruby flinched at his admission all most doing a double take as she fought to keep her emotions in check. It was… nice to know that her father still considered her family, even after sixteen years of not knowing she existed, but it also felt alien. She already had a family, she had four sisters nine aunts fifteen uncles and Junior… her father. Yet here, before her, was he real father and grandfather, who she hadn’t even known three days ago. She had known she tied into the royals somehow, and who her father was, but she had always assumed it would never become anything significant. She had been content with what she had and, though she was happy to see the two, overjoyed even, she didn’t know how to feel about it. She silently pondered before Rook cleared his throat and she, along with Qrow, looked over to him.

“If I may, my dear; might I suggest we start this slowly.” He paused to check she was paying attention and smiled softly when she was watching with avid attention. “If you asked me to, I would whisk you away to the family house and do my best to be the grandfather I should have been these past years.” She visibly flinched at the idea of leaving and he couldn’t help but let a huffed laugh pass his lips before he continued. “But I know what it’s like to leave family and, though it saddens me that we are not that family, I cannot bring myself to be the man to take them from you.” Ruby quietly nodded at his words as he continued. “So, I propose we get to know each other over the next few weeks and months, and hopefully by the end of your first semester at Beacon we can rebuild our relationship.” The plan was offered in a polite, gentle and almost questioning tone. She could have sworn he seemed to almost be pleading but wouldn’t let his façade fall to reveal him doing so.

Ruby hadn’t expected this when she lost sleep the previous night, the most deplorable and disgusting scenes playing over and over again in her head. She had imagined several scenarios, ranging from straight abduction to bribing her to remain anonymous to forcing her to marry some various other noble who they wanted a blood tie with. She had not, however, imagined the pair to arrive and offer to amend the broken relationship between them, for the them to apologies for their family’s actions and show her unwarranted acceptance. She was lost for words as the moments ticked by and she felt worse from assuming such horrible things from her father and grandfather. Eventually the king cleared his throat, prompting an answer and she had to lick her lips which mysteriously seemed to dry up immediately before speaking.

“I… I think I would like that.” She donned a small genuine smile which they both returned. She may not be able to accept them right now, but they were kind and patient, she may be able to learn to accept them.

The room descended into idle chatter for the better part of thirty minutes before the king’s pager buzzed, clearly meant to remind him of something. He looked over the small message it displayed before pocketing it once more. Qrow looked over to him and nodded and they both slowly stood to mark their departure. However, before they left the king decided it best to wrap up anything that Ruby may want to know. After a few minutes of pondering she decided it was best to get some things that had been weighing heavily on her chest.

“Actually, there are a few things I wanted to ask you, I wasn’t sure if it was rude to ask or not though.” For a moment she fidgeted uncomfortably as the two exchanged glances before sharing a laugh replying.

“My dear, I would be surprised if there was anything, we wouldn’t be happy answering.” Her grandfather smiled fondly down at her as she slowly nodded before taking a deep breath and continuing.

“Oh, okay… So, first, I guess, is; who is that blonde to me?” The question was unexpected but easy enough to answer, though they made sure to calmly reply for fear of triggering memories or emotions that were best left elsewhere.

“She is called Yang, and she is your cousin.” Ruby slowly nodded at the reply her father gave her, cousin, she could deal with that, a little closer than she would like, but far enough to not warrant frequent interaction. Part of her wanted to apologies to the blonde, but she knew it would take a while for her to push past the memories before she could confront her. She seemed to resolve herself to something as she looked back up to her newfound family.

“I never imagined I would ask this, but… Am I expected to do anything, like duties or something?” she winced at how she had worded the question but wasn’t able to formulate how to put it more eloquently, growing up in club hadn’t exactly helped her formulate amazing speech patterns or habits. She was also worried as the two men seemed to share a silent conversation, their gazes locked and only the odd tilting of their heads or eye movement hinted they were moving at all. Eventually the two quietly nodded and Rook moved his gaze to Ruby.

“For now, you shouldn’t have to do anything. The public doesn’t know you exist yet, and I think we should keep it that way until you graduate Beacon.” Ruby nodded and let out a strained breath she hadn’t realised she was holding, only to draw it in again as the king continued. “However, other family members will likely want to meet you and I can only buy you space for so long.” She thought for a moment before nodding, that didn’t seem too bad; it may be awkward to meet her long-lost family, but she could deal with that. Unfortunately for her, Rook wasn’t finished.

“Other nobles may want you to meet their sons to… acquaint you; in hopes of something greater forming. You needn’t worry I should be able to stave that off until you leave Beacon. There is however one last thing that I feel you should know.” Ruby failed to suppress a gulp as the king’s expression grew more serious, not aggressive in anyway but more like a distaste for what he was about to say. “You are currently second in line for the throne.”

The statement made her heart sink like lead as she processed what he said. Her mind momentarily turned to mush as she ran the words over and over again in her mind. She managed to recover slowly and spoke with a small tremble in her words, unsure if she had heard him correctly. Her throat was seemingly barren as she spoke but managed to carry her words to the two others gathered.

“B-but… wha… How?” The reaction had been expected by the royals, but Rook was currently withholding his own opinions on the succession system so, after a moment, Qrow answered.

“The Branwen succession system works in generations. If possible, the new king or queen will be appointed from the generation of the previous’ offspring. The only time a monarch is appointed of the same generation is if there are no available princes or princesses at the age of adulthood. Offspring of the previous monarch are given priority over those of their siblings and from amongst those an heir is generally named. This means that when your grandfather’s time passes or he steps down I will take the throne, which will make you…” he trailed off as Ruby seemingly found her voice, though a disbelieving tone set in.

“Next in line…”


	15. Chapter 15

Winter was used to living in luxury; living as Atlas’ royalty made sure all her needs and wants were catered for without having to even consider what it cost to achieve these whims and desires. Winter, however, hadn’t often liked to flaunt her immense wealth or fortune; instead finding peace with ensuring that she deserved such privileges to the best of her ability. Her father had of course loudly protested as his daughter came to him with the proposal that she spend time training with the Atlesian Specialist Division, or ASD as they were often called. This had come to no surprise to her as she was, after all, supposed to be the heiress to the Atlesian throne. However, like most obstacles she faced, she had overcome her father’s insistence by offering several logical rebuttals to his arguments and recommendation from powerful individuals in her father’s court.

Her father had always been a controlling man and it was no secret that she loathed him; having many times considered stealing away with her siblings and leaving him along with the family name, after siphoning some of the fortune away for herself of course. Her siblings, however, were not so easily made aware of the atrocities that were committed at his command within Atlas, and she dared not leave them to deal with him without her, fearing for their minds and futures under the unfiltered poisonous beliefs that he would instil upon them. It was bad enough that they seemed to have adopted his racist beliefs concerning faunas, let alone if she hadn’t been there to at least water his words down.

Luckily her sister, Weiss, was going to beacon this year at the age of seventeen going on eighteen; hopefully there she would have her eyes opened and ego curbed slightly. Though she prayed she was let down softly, rather than torn apart quicker than she could cope with. Her brother, Whitely, however, was too young even to do that, and would likely spend the majority of the next few years alone with their father. She shuddered at the thought but swallowed her feelings on the matter, she just hoped that the boy was able to see through the tinted glass their father portrayed the world through. Whitely was intelligent so she had hope that he could do it but was prepared to sit him down in the future and correct his views, by force if need be.

Winter surveyed the garden around her, taking in the rows upon rows of perfectly conditioned bushes and flowers that were only broken by the white, ankle-height picket fences that marked the borders of the stone tiled path for people to walk on. She currently sat in a large wooden gazebo in the centre of the massive garden, watching as various servants went about priming hedges, offering service to her or watching the Branwen Manor’s rear walls that came into view some hundred meters in the distance. Winter could never bring herself to like these gardens either in Atlas or Vale, the way they were organised so pristinely often bothered her. It reminded her that even nature itself, seemingly, couldn’t always find a way to resist the whims that man often imposed on it. However, she had decided the tranquillity it offered was required for the meeting she was about to sit through and, though she was loathe to admit it, it was a good place to come and think every once and a while.

An out of place movement caught the edge of her gaze and she turned her head to see one Bartholomew wander his way down the paths of the garden towards her. He walked with a slight urgency that seemed to add a few centimetres to each step, but also was visibly trying to hold himself back from acting too quickly or accidently tripping on something, with his gaze often looking down to the path to check for uneven ground. Of course, the action was pointless, the groundsmen would never let such an imperfection into their garden, but she thought the display as he stiffly walked over was… cute.

The professor was wearing a brown suit jacket that fit snuggly around his upper torso, only showing a small amount of the white shirt that was buttoned up underneath and tucked snuggly into long black trousers that stopped perfectly at the edge of his lower ankles. The outfit was accented by a burgundy tie that was, for once, properly done so that the tail couldn’t be seen hanging out or jutting from an odd angle. His hair had seemingly been combed but clearly refused to be tamed as she could see that as it got further back it became more unruly and the straight lines from the comb had become blurred. Winter had to admit, the man cleaned up well, he was definitely not perfect; his shirt poked out from his trousers on one side and his glasses were seemingly steamed up, perhaps from running part of the way here, but she preferred it, him even, this way. It reminded her that he was a person, with feelings and goals, rather than the mindless, self-interested sycophants that filled the majority of her father’s court. She couldn’t help but don a warm smile as he approached.

“Your highness! I am terribly sorry; the traffic was terrible and my niece was going to meet the prince and king, and I was worried so I waited and…” he made to continue his rambling but was cut off by a light giggle that escaped the princess. He looked up to see where her mood came from only to see her looking straight at him with one hand hiding her open mouth as she chuckled.

“I beg your forgiveness professor. It’s quite alright, you see; you are actually an hour early.” The historian’s eyes widened suddenly as he peered down at his watch. It displayed the time to be a few minutes after midday, their meeting having been scheduled for one p.m. He pulled at the collar of his shirt for a moment before speaking, all the while the princess fought back to giggle at the display.

“Apologies your highness, I will see myself out, I did not mean to waste your time outside the appointed time slot.” He bowed slightly, clearly not used to doing so, before turning slowly. Winter flinched at his response and leaned forward to place a hand on his shoulder to stop him from leaving. However, his step was larger than she had anticipated, his legs being a fair bit longer than her own and she leaned too far in order to do so, causing her to stumble.

The grounds staff snapped their heads towards the gazebo as the sound of a high-pitched yelp, accompanied by a deeper grunt and the sound of bushes giving way to heavier weights, the twigs snapping and leaves rustling. None of them expected what they saw. There, splayed out on the expertly maintained lawn, was the crown princess of Atlas laying atop a slightly dazed and dishevelled man with green hair. The shellshock wore off quickly and those closest immediately assumed the worst as they beheld the two struggled to get up without furthering the awkward situation, many running over to check the princess’ health and safety.

Bart had seemingly frozen in place as he took in his surroundings. At first, he was disorientated, barely managing to make out shapes in the blurred mess of colours that had taken grasp over his vision. After a moment, he ran his hands out along the grass he had fallen onto, eventually feeling the slightly warm metal of his glasses’ frames. As he blinked and his vision cleared up, he saw what had fallen on top of him, and his brain shut down as he beheld the very close, very attractive Atlesian princes try and fail to untangle herself from the bush and him. All the while she worked, she wore a deep red tint along her cheeks. It was after the first groundsman made it to them that he recovered and made to amend the situation.

“I am so sorry! I must have tripped and…” he stood in an attempt to aid her getting up, but she had been only half off him and so fell once more when her footing had been suddenly moved. There was another squeak and grunt as they feel back onto the grass. He raised his head to look at her but all he could see was the top of her head as she led face down in his shirt. Then he heard it, a sound escaping her lips as she moved to get up.

He immediately feared the worst; he wasn’t sure what had happened, but he was currently flailing around on the lawn with Winter Schnee, Crown Princess of Atlas. The Schnees had a history of striking out at anyone that they had considered to have wronged them. There were rumours and stories of family members and co-workers disappearing over night after coincidentally having earned the ire of the Schnee family and its members. He flinched as she was seemingly shaking on top of him, barely able to control her anger. He was doomed, she could pin anything on him, his fingerprints were likely all over her from their struggle and he doubted any of the grounds staff would testify on his behalf, or risk losing their own heads. His musings were cut off as she raised her head up from his shirt and met his gaze, she was… laughing?

It was true, as he beheld her, she was letting out a bout of hearty laughter, even as the groundsmen helped her to her feet and fussed over her now soiled clothing and hair. He simply stared dumbfounded, unable to tell if she was sincere or not at first, but after she offered a gloved hand to him, he realised she wasn’t overly bothered by what had transpired, maybe even having enjoyed the ordeal. A part of him sighed in relief as she visibly fought to contain her giggling fit, another part was screaming at himself for letting such a thing happen regardless of outcome, but most of him struggled with tearing his gaze away as he watched her recover, some sort of weight having been lifted from her shoulders.

“What on earth for?” the words were still occasionally broken up by giggles as she spoke. “Has anyone ever told you that you think too much?” For a moment he simply stood there, confused, before finally letting a smirk of his own reach his lips.

“Eccentric I believe was how I am often described, but yes.” They smiled at each other for a long moment, however, were eventually pulled from their shared gaze by someone clearing their throat of to their side. Winter blinked frantically before turning to the source of the sound, only to be met with the sight of butler with his fist politely in front of his mouth.

“Excuse me your highness, but is there an issue? Are you injured in anyway?” Winter simply raised a hand to halt his questioning before she gestured to the professor who was now trying to dust off his suit but failing to make even small improvements.

“It’s quite alright, a simple accident that ended rather embarrassingly for both me and the good professor here.” She knew the butler; he had come with her from Atlas and reported directly to her father on developments that happened whilst she was visiting the kingdom. She didn’t like him much, knowing her father payed him handsomely to remain in his pocket and wouldn’t defect for anything short of a small duchy. “I shall clean myself up in a little while, after I have concluded my business with my guest here.” The butler looked the scraggly man up and down disapprovingly before frowning at the princess.

“Understood your highness, though, I feel it may be worth reminding you of your engagement to the crown prince of Vale, your father would not take kindly to jeopardising that arrangement by frolicking in the garden with someone of lesser breading.” Winter visibly soured at the butler’s words and levelled a withering stare at the man. Bart wasn’t sure if he should feel intimidated, but he certainly did not envy the small ginger man who the icy glare was pointed at.

“I will ‘frolic’ with whom I wish, father is well aware I am no fan of this arranged marriage, though I hold nothing against the prince, it has come to my attention he doesn’t currently have room in his heart for another such as myself. Regardless, I told you it was a simple accident. Now leave us.” Her voice had grown noticeably irritated as she continued to speak and there was no attempt at hiding the venom in her last command. To his credit the butler seemed relatively unfazed, but after a moment he nodded slowly and began walking away.

“As you wish your highness.” His voice carried its own underlying venom, but it was heavily watered down as he did as he was bid. As he left, he walked past Bart and murmured under his breath. “Spoilt bitch.” Bart caught the words and glared daggers of his own at the passing butler, who made no effort in explaining himself, Winter having seemingly not heard. Once the man was out of sight the princess turned back to him.

“I’m sorry about that, my father is very conscious about the frailty of my engagement to Qrow, and will not risk the unison under any circumstances, it’s too profitable for him to lose the asset willingly.” She sighed but was surprised when Bart spoke up.

“Why not call it off? Surely in this day and age you aren’t actually under any kind of duress.” A sad smile donned the woman’s lips as she moved to sit back at the Gazebo table, which he slowly followed her in doing. She seemed to think for a moment before meeting his eyes.

“Whilst it is true, that he likely could not disown me, nor strike me at my current age and due to my own power within his court, the same cannot be said of my siblings. If I were to turn down the marriage proposal, he would simply go to my younger sister and talk her into accepting it in my stead.” She sipped at her tea which had gone slightly cold from being left for too long, though she didn’t even register the taste as she continued. “I may not like what my future may have in store, but I refuse to throw her into that. The relationship is awkward and strained enough, now imagine if I were, instead, a confused teenage girl wanting nothing but my father’s approval marrying a man over twice my age and was constantly under pressure to bear a child to solidify the union. All so my father can have his own weapon like the Branwens do.” The handle of her tiny ceramic cup snapped off in her hand, though she didn’t seem to notice. Bart, whilst feeling slightly out of his element, felt the urge to at least try and comfort her.

“I’m sorry.” He mentally smacked himself for apologising again but continued before she could say something about it. For a moment he looked for anything to talk about and take her mind off her fate that she seemed to be so desperately fighting against. His gaze flicked to her cup and instinctually he spoke. “How do you take your coffee?” The princess visibly flinched at the sudden question, which seemingly had no place in their previous conversation, though quickly put two and two together. Her smiled returned this time a little more mischievous than before.

“I much prefer tea over coffee.” She struggled to contain her chuckle as Bart visibly twitched at the words, likely considering them treasonous. To his credit he pushed his, now slightly crooked, glasses further up his nose before retrieving his thermos from seemingly nowhere.

“I will pretend I did not hear such blasphemous utterings from one so cultured such as yourself.” There was his own playfulness in his tone as he adopted his imitation of the butler that had not long left. The professor fished a handkerchief from his pocket and thoroughly cleaned the brim before pushing it towards her, making a show of the action. “Now drink, let the ambrosia wash away all of your misgivings and build your taste buds anew.” Winter failed to contain her laugh, but after a moment obliged the gesture. She was met by the sweet taste of sugar and familiar tang of coffee both of which were subdued slightly by cream and something else.

“Is that whiskey I can taste?” he nodded knowingly as she subconsciously took another mouthful, this one larger than the last. He seemed smugly victorious and she rose to the challenge. “Not bad, however,” Bart’s expression visibly dropped,” it is far from beating the best tea I have tasted”. She poured an extra cup from her teapot she had been using and gestured for him to drink. Reluctantly he complied. His eyes subconsciously rose, and she noticed how he didn’t immediately stop drinking after a moment. Winter laughed. “Perhaps it is not as profane as you first let on.” The professor frowned but didn’t reply immediately and she noticed how the cup he put down was empty.

“I have no idea what you are insinuating, that whole experience was repulsive, I simply decided it was best not to waste something offered to me by my host.” Winter’s eyebrows rose further, silently questioning him. His façade broke and it was his turn to laugh at the ridiculous look she was giving him. “Perhaps I should take you to a proper establishment another time and show the true superiority of coffee.” There was a challenge in his eyes as he spoke, along with something else… warmth. Winter chuckled again.

“I would like to see such Sisyphean task, after all maybe after failing you can see the magnificence of the far greater beverage.” Bart’s grin spread from ear to ear as they spoke.

“Careful, such large and plastic words are going to be hard to eat when I succeed.” Their challenging gazes met for almost half a minute before bothy let out small chuckles and decided to return to their respective drinks. After a few more minutes of idle chatter, which Winter strangely found herself enjoying, the princess decided it was time they got to the business at hand.

“I suppose I should explain why I asked you to meet me here, whilst the conversation has been enjoyable, it was not my original intention.” Bart slowly nodded, realising the change in tone in the conversation and letting his mind take a more analytical view as his companion continued. Winter breathed deep before speaking. “I’ll cut straight to my point; I believe I may have something that is both beneficial to your niece and to myself and a friend of mine.” Bart grew visibly guarded but let her continue before speaking. “I assure you I do not mean to use her as a tool, gods know I do not want to become my father, but instead think of this as more of an offer in both our interests.” Bart motioned for her to continue.

“You see, my friend happens to be the general of the Atlesian military, General Ironwood, perhaps you’ve heard of him.” Bart nodded and she continued. “Well, about a year ago, he and a few trusted others came to me and requested funding for a project that they did not want my father to hear of. After some convincing I decided to oblige them, what they suggested was rather intriguing and I have more money than I need anyway.” She stopped to let him take the information in.

“Okay, but how does this effect either me or my niece, let alone benefit us in some way?” he seemed both sceptical but intrigued simultaneously, something she knew only someone as eccentric as himself should be capable of. She sighed and mentally prepared herself, dismissing all of the nearby staff in order to grant them complete isolation.

“Well, what I am about to tell you cannot, and I mean _cannot_ leave this table, understood?” he seemed slightly taken aback by her rather forceful tone, but she could see the fires of his curiosity only grew. He nodded slowly. _Good enough_ she supposed. “The project, or P.E.N.N.Y as it is now referred to, was put together by a brilliant scientist by the name of Dr Pietro Polendina. About a year ago the good doctor lost both his wife and daughter in mass shooting in Atlas. He was left distraught and many of his friends were told to watch the man and make sure he didn’t do anything drastic in his grief. However, like usual, the doctor’s mind amazed us all, he had managed to contain his daughter’s soul, or most of it anyway, and put it into a robotic body.” Bart could feel his eyes bulging as he looked at her disbelievingly but let her continue. “In his paranoia over losing his daughter again, the doctor granted her new body something to ensure that she would never be left defenceless again. He gave her a Grimm mark.” The professor spat up some of the tea he had been drinking as she finished her sentence, luckily none landing on his host.

“You can’t be serious. I mean, how can a machine possess a Grimm mark? Surely it requires blood and machines do not bleed, none that I have seen anyway.” She could see his mind race at a thousand miles an hour, trying its hardest to figure how such a thing could come about. In another situation she may have laughed again. Instead she breathed deeply and spoke.

“It turns out, that Grimm marks have their power rooted within the strength of an individual’s soul. It is true that the blood itself is poisonous to most human bodies and such is why only a select few are capable of wielding a mark, but in her case her body is immune to all poisons, being an android means that all she has to have is the willpower to control the Grimm and an ample supply of Grimm blood somewhere within her body.” Slowly, Bart nodded along, thinking of all of the implications this news had and how it could affect his views on the marks.

“I see, but, whilst this information is appreciated, I still fail to see where this impacts my niece.” Winter poured herself another cup of tea before the professor drained it all and sipped slowly before continuing.

“Normally, this would be fine, unorthodox and dangerous, but otherwise fine. However, the doctor would take no chances on his daughter again. So… after spending an exorbitant amount of money, he found the strongest known specimen of Grimm blood in all of Atlas and used that for the procedure.” She waited for the historian to react, but he simply sat there staring at the table, seemingly transfixed with his own thoughts. After what felt like whole minutes passed, he finally made a sound.

“Are you suggesting, we have the two meet?” The professor looked cautious but also intrigued. Perhaps this could be beneficial, the girl would be kept out of sight from the Atlesian king and could potentially have help controlling her power like what had happened between Ruby and Nora, and Ruby would have someone that could withstand her getting a little serious, letting her burn off her power if she went too long without using it. Winter nodded.

“I take it you’re interested?” The question burned a hole into his head as he pondered over and over again of the possible consequences. It was dangerous, if the new girl’s Grimm didn’t submit to Ruby’s a fight could break out and he was confident that, if what Winter said was true, the whole Branwen family would have to be mobilised to stop it. Even then he wasn’t sure of that would be enough, at least not without avoiding severe civilian casualties. However, it was also potentially his only chance to allow Ruby a real way to vent her power, something he knew was growing increasingly difficult for his niece.

“How would they meet?” at this Winter donned another grin, knowing he had all but vocalised his agreement.

“She’s actually already on her way here.” Bart looked confused at first before it dawned on him what was happening in the near future. “At her own request we are allowing her to enrol at Beacon this year, both to help her grow in combat and to improve her… less than stellar social skills.”

Bart nodded, but inwardly screamed at the revelation. He had prepared for the coming year to be a big year for him at Beacon. He nieces would be attending as freshmen, the Xiao Long child was already a second year in the coming semester, not to mention the list of other applicants this year. However, now, he had to worry about a potential kingdom wide war breaking out if a pair of likely emotionally charged teens disagreed too much. It seemed he was not meant to have the easy life he craved so deeply. The thought made him grin from ear to ear. _Who am I kidding? It wouldn’t be my life if it didn’t threaten to kill me or worse every few minutes._ He turned to his companion, smile on full display. She returned it.

_My coffee may need more whisky this year._ He looked down at his thermos and then again to Winter. _Though, I do hear that tea mixes better with alcohol._


	16. Chapter 16

Ruby was not having a good day. She had awoken that morning tired, stressed and overwhelmed by the situation she found herself in. After Rook and Qrow had left she had simply stood in the shower for well over an hour, running the conversation over and over again in her head; not believing herself every time she replayed the last few moments. To make matters worse her whole family had been absent when she woke up, leaving nothing but a sticky note on the front desk of the bar saying that there was a large scale gang war happening on the southern side of Vale that they had to put an end to so business wouldn’t be interrupted.

It was at this point that she noticed the time and scrambled as quickly as she could to get ready. The clock displayed midday; her ranking tests at Beacon had been scheduled to start at one o’clock and the journey was easily forty-five minutes long not including traffic. Which led her to the next problem; she didn’t have a car and couldn’t drive even if she did.

With generous use of her semblance she had made it to the first testing hall only three minutes late. At first, she had been proud of herself, for running around thirty miles in forty-ish minutes, only to notice that Glynda Goodwitch was, once again, the assigned instructor and was not pleased in the slightest. The scalding seemed to last almost as long as her run itself, and was definitely more tiring, but ended by Glynda telling her that she had failed the first test by default for being late. She was swiftly guided to the next test room in order to wait for the rest of the initiates to finish the test she had failed. To top it all off, the first test was scheduled to last for three hours and she hadn’t brought anything to entertain herself.

She had quickly grown tired of waiting in silence; without anything to focus on, she couldn’t help but relive the last few days in her head, wondering what triggered it all and why her life couldn’t just be simple. She paused. No, she liked her life, it was rough, it was complicated and at times hard, but she would never wish for anything else, simple was boring and simple wouldn’t have let her meet her family. She smiled, resolving herself to do something constructive with this time. She was far from the most creative person in the world and after trying, and failing, to find something stimulating, she resorted to what her uncle liked to call a ‘therapy workout’. Unfortunately, she had lost track of time and was only stopped from her routine by a displeased voice clearing their voice.

Ruby looked up to see Glynda glaring pointedly at her, along with several initiates behind her, each doing a mixture of ogling, averting their gazes or outright wolf-whistling as they walked into the room. The instructor walked up to Ruby as she stood, a blush clear on her face from unintentionally giving a show for her potential piers.

“Miss Rose, whilst I applaud your drive to keep yourself fit and healthy, must I remind you that foyer to the combat hall is far from the ideal place for you to do so.” Ruby nodded quickly and fell into step behind the professor as the older woman lead the initiates into aforementioned combat hall. Ruby wanted to rebut and explain that she was simply making good use of her time, but Bart had drilled into her the importance of nodding and ignoring Goodwitch, even if it is bit degrading at times. Her uncle had stressed the amount of times that his pay-check had been conveniently misplaced and so had to be re-written and authorised several days later than it was due, each time being coincidentally after he had argued with the deputy headmistress.

The doors swung open to reveal the familiar combat hall, the steel floor of the ring shinning as the overhead lights flooded onto it whilst leaving the seating in almost complete darkness. Ruby could hear as the faint hum of electricity flooded through various machinery both under and around the arena, and she couldn’t help but feel a shiver run down her spine at the sight of around twenty pictures on the screen that had held various info for spectators about the competitors. She glanced around and saw a few older students, watching from the raised seats in the back, as they stared down at the potential newbies, often exchanging bets or jests at the expense of their juniors. The Blonde professor waited for a moment, in order to let the mumbling quiet down, before speaking to the gathered hopefuls.

“As you may already know, Beacon has a strict and ruthless curriculum both in the classroom and in the field. Whilst it is important that you maintain both to at least an acceptable degree, in order to truly thrive at Beacon, you must be capable of overcoming your flaws and pushing yourself beyond expectations.” A few initiates hummed in agreement or understand, but it seemed as if the Professor wasn’t finished.

“What you may not know, is that Beacon only accepts eighty new students every year. This means that each and every spot is coveted and valuable, one is certainly not given out lightly. However, this year we have already accepted the admittance of seventy-six students, leaving the remaining spots for you ‘special circumstance’ initiates to claim.” She paused, waiting for the students to the arithmetic in their heads. It seemed to dawn on most after a second and she seemed to take a cruel sort of glee as she smiled at them.

“Indeed, it seems you have figured out my point. There are only four remaining spots for this year’s student body, and as I’m sure you are all aware, there are thirty-two of you here today now that Miss Rose has joined us.” The quick glare she sent Ruby’s way wasn’t missed by the teen, but she once again heeded her uncle’s advice and chose to ignore it, this seemed to irritate the professor, but she recovered seamlessly and continued. “So, these tests are designed to find the best of the best amongst you and pick them apart from the pack.” The Blonde gestured to the board, not bothering to hide her pleasure at the gulps she heard from the potential students.

“Each of you will partake in a double elimination tournament and ranked based on your individual performances compared to your potential piers. This rank will then be combined with your other rank from the previous test and the bets four will proceed to take the available slots, the others will be offered a chance to re-apply next year.” Ruby’s heart sank at Goodwitch’s words, each and every word concreting her situation further and further into her consciousness. ‘ _I automatically failed the first test, that means I will have the lowest score! Even if I get the highest here, assuming both are weighted equally, I can have at most fifty percent of the possible grade!’_

She wasn’t given much time to ponder as she was ripped out of her thoughts by the sound of the several images on the screen popping up and mixing around on the tournament table to decide matchups. After a moment a loud, high-pitched beep split the tense air and displayed the match ladder. The teen’s eyes darted around to find her picture, frantically trying to contain her panic at the concept of her situation. She quickly found herself and sighed in relief as she realised, she was the fourth match of the first round, meaning she had plenty of time to sit and think about her options. There were several varied reactions from her potential classmates, ranging from barely contained excitement to abject horror.

Ruby quietly sat down in the front row of seating, furiously running through her potential solutions to the problem. She was vaguely aware of the buzzer in the background signifying the start of the first match, but payed no attention to it, instead focused on her inner turmoil. _How can I possibly overcome a fifty percent deficit? I mean, whoever places sixteenth in both tests will have the same overall score as me! Sixteenth!_ She ran over more possibilities but was always left disappointed by her answer. The buzzer sounded again, signifying the beginning of the second spar. The Rose around her arm was practically vibrating with happiness as her piers flung their anxiety and fear around. That’s when it struck her.

_‘Glynda said we would be given a grade compared to our piers… meaning that if one is clearly superior to the rest it lowers others’ grade as well as raising their own._ Her intention became clear and her shadow seemed to quiver in excitement. _I have to win, and I have to do so thoroughly. There’s no way I can come first like this overall, but I may be able to get fourth._ Her gaze snapped up at the sound of something shattering; the third match in progress before of her. She was surprised by what she saw.

There, on the stage, was the dual-coloured girl from before, Neapolitan. The petite girl was a sight to behold; seamlessly weaving in and out of her opponents swings and strikes. As she narrowly evaded an overhead swing, her opponent grinned and spun wildly, changing the direction of his strike to hit the girl. Ruby sucked in her breath preparing to wince at the blow as it neared the tiny girl, only to have her shatter into a million different pieces like a stained-glass window. The larger foe flinched and recoiled at the display, not noticing his opponent appear seemingly from nowhere and slip into his guard. Ruby watched amazed as Neapolitan began to use her opponent as a climbing frame, flipping and turning around their limbs and torso before ending with her legs wrapped around their neck, slowly starving the larger boy of air. A few moments passed before he resigned himself to his fate and tapped out.

The multi-coloured girl quickly stood and brushed herself off before catching Ruby staring at her. Luckily, Ruby caught herself, but she never managed to hide her slightly agape mouth. The smaller fighter simply smiled and waved before jumping off the stage on the opposite side from Ruby. After a moment Ruby’s thoughts caught up with her, causing her to have a slight mental crash.

_If any of the others are as good as her, I might have a problem. I think I can win, but not with the ease I need to._ The rose seemed to nuzzle against her arm, as if prompting her, giving its answer. _Should I? Junior said I could. It’s not like I have to hide it anymore, but if I do so then other people will know what I am, who I am. The king said it might be best if I stay hidden for a while, but that doesn’t help me now._ Her glare shot to the professor who was scrawling something on her clipboard, most likely her report of the previous fight, she was already growing to dislike the instructor. _Forced to fail the test for being three minutes late, THREE MINUTES!_ The blonde caught Ruby’s gaze.

“Miss Rose, if you are quite done gawking, you may want to take your position in the ring. Unless, you want to forfeit another examination?” There was a slight mocking hint in the voice and Ruby fought to not grit her teeth and growl at the woman who was seemingly enjoying her plight. She had thought her uncle to be overreacting, as he often did, when describing how the woman was a tyrant, now, she considered his vocabulary to have been far too polite. The teen slowly trudged up to the ring, eying up her opponent who ascended the steps in the opposite corner.

She would admit, the girl opposite her was intriguing. She was, as Jax would say, a tall glass of water. The girl wore a black, buttoned vest with a single silver button on the front holding it closed. Underneath, clearly displayed, was a white sleeveless high-necked, crop undershirt. To finish off her outfit, she wore long black, form-fitting leggings that ended by connecting into the top of black low-heeled boots. The girl sported mesmerizing golden eyes and long, velvet-like, dark hair which was tied up neatly with a slightly oversized black bow. She held herself well, moving almost silently and never once showing any hesitation in her step. She drew a long katana from a sheath at her side before also gripping the sheath itself. Closer inspection revealed the sheath was also sharpened so it could be used as a weapon even on its own. The dark coloured girl shifted her stance, preparing herself for the match.

Ruby once again had to snap herself out of staring in order to remind herself why she was there, the taller girl seemed to notice and allowed a small smirk to form on her features. Ruby tried her best to ignore the heat dusting her cheeks and lowered her own stance. She left her dagger and handgun holstered in her jacket; better to reveal them later, when her opponent assumed her unarmed. With both fighters seemingly ready, Glynda began the countdown for the match. The screen, with each of their respective pictures displayed, declaring each second as timer reached its end.

“10,9,8…”

_I’ll have to see how well I do without it. Then, I guess, I’ll see how much I need it._

“7,6,5…”

_I’ve got this right? I mean, I’ve been trained to not rely on my mark, hell, I barely know **how** to use it._

“4,3,2…”

_But this is my place at Beacon on the line here. If I used it, they would have to accept me. They wouldn’t dare turn down a Branwen right?_

“1…”

_No, I won’t rely on that. I got this far on my skill alone, If I use it then I’m throwing away everything my family taught me for something I didn’t earn. If I have to I will, but only as a last resort._

“Begin!”

For a moment neither combatant moved, simply sizing up their opponents and judging what sort of ranges and tactics they would have to use. Neither of them broke the silent staring contest as they inspected each other and slowly rotated around the ring in a clockwise direction, looking for the slightest fault in the other’s stance.

The golden eyed girl seemed to find it first and closed the gap quickly, attacking in short precise arcs and stabs to keep her opponent on the back foot. Ruby slid between each strike, deflecting the odd swing that she couldn’t avoid. For several moments the fight continued with Ruby weathering the deadly flurry, waiting for her opponent to make a mistake or overextend. Eventually, her moment came, and the taller girl delivered an overhead swing that held slightly more weight than it should. Ruby pivoted on the balls of her feet, causing the swing to just barely miss, and the younger girl jumped into the other’s guard.

The fight seemingly switched in dynamic with the sword wielder being forced to move between quick, ruthless jab combos. Ruby never let her get her guard up, instead forcing her opponent to take steps back in order to gain space. Her opponent had a range advantage on her for the moment, meaning she had to keep the fight close so she could make it hard for the other girl to use her weapon. After another second of her relentless push, Ruby was rewarded by her opponent stumbling slightly in order to keep their footing under pressure. The younger girl immediately seized the opportunity and set her feet to land a powerful right cross to her opponent’s ribs.

Ruby was surprised to find herself stumbling forward, wisps of black smoke curling around her fist. Her confusion was halted as she heard a faint whistling if a blade behind her. She rode her momentum into a forward roll, regaining her footing facing the new direction her opponent was now pressuring her from.

This time her opponent was making sure to keep her at range, never once overcommitting to a strike, seemingly happy to wear her down through attrition. Ruby inwardly cursed, she couldn’t blame the other girl for doing this, in fact it was the right move on her opponents’ part, but the fight had just gotten a lot harder.

_Of course, she had to be a teleporter. Why wouldn’t she be? Now how am I supposed to close the gap? Even if I draw my dagger, I’m still out ranged. I could use my semblance, but I will have to fight Neo later and I’ve already used it a lot today._

Ruby’s family, at first, had thought her a teleporter, after all to them she disappeared and reappeared somewhere else in the blink of an eye when she used her semblance. She herself would describe it as teleporting in passing, to make it easier to understand. However, as she grew older, she realised it wasn’t quite the truth. Whereas teleporters often had to imagine where they wanted to be and would appear there, Ruby was slightly different. What she did was certainly akin to teleporting and as such fell under the same description, but it was certainly different in at least some manners. The main difference being that she actually physically moved to her new location rather than simply appearing there. This is to say that, to her, when she ‘teleported’ to the other side of the room, she actually ran the whole distance. She tried describing it her family as moving whilst everything else couldn’t, but she wasn’t allowed to touch another person or to touch anything she wasn’t already touching before moving, in order to interact with the world again she had to stop using it. However, the longer she used it, the less effective it became. It was like it had a limit on how long she could use it and the more she used it in a short time, the shorter the time she could use it at once became.

The taller girl broke her train of thought by managing to catch her shoulder with a small cut. Ruby’s eyes widened in shock and her opponent continued to push the advantage. It was clear to Ruby that this girl would make it to the top four; whilst she hadn’t been able to watch the other matches too closely, she knew from experience that this type of skill came from necessity rather than training. This girl was like Jax and Nora, she had learned to fight to protect herself or someone else, not because she wanted to. Once more her guard was opened and her opponent planted a boot in her gut, sending her tumbling a few feet before she rolled back into her stance.

Ruby let out a breath and settled herself on her feet. _Well, it seems any plans I had involving holding back early on have gone down the drain. Might as well make a show out of it._ The other combatant leaned forward slightly, giving away her intent, Ruby smirked.

The black-themed girl seemed to disappear into smoke, the only hint she still existed being the low hum of her sword cutting through the air. Time seemed to slow as Ruby turned around seeing her opponent static in the air with sword and sheath swinging at her previously exposed midsection. Ruby was impressed, even as she beheld the girl now, she was hardly letting any emotion show on her face, only a faint tinge of excitement gleaming in the back of her golden irises. Not wanting to waste much more of her semblance Ruby ran behind her opponent and prepared to drop her semblance, hesitating for only a second. She glanced up at the screen displaying their vitals, quickly finding what she was looking for, there under the picture of her opponent was her name. Blake B. A small smile ran across her features as her semblance came to an end.

* * *

Blake Belladonna was a little underwhelmed by her experience so far; the written tests had been a breeze and the combatants she had come across so far hadn’t been much different. The multicoloured girl was certainly a standout, Neapolitan was it? However, no one else was even remotely interesting so far. She remembered how her mother and father had romanticised their time at Beacon, speaking of the warriors and sights that they beheld like fables of great people. It seemed people had gotten softer as time went by, it was hardly surprising, but certainly disappointing.

She had been pleasantly surprised when she had been paired with the young red eyed girl; she had seen her training, along with everyone else, when exiting the written exam hall and had been impressed. The girl, despite her smaller frame, was clearly well toned and fit, perhaps even more than herself and aside from the multicoloured girl she was possibly the only interesting person here.

The fight so far had been possibly the most fun she had had in months and she hoped it continued in such a matter. The smaller girl had been able to keep up with her pacing and had even, at one point, forced her to keep up as she laid into her defence. The fight could have ended there if it weren’t for her semblance allowing her to put more space between them. She could tell the girl was trying to conceal something, but she couldn’t tell what it was and opted to just force it out of her. She had managed to bat both of the girl’s arms wide of her core and deliver a powerful kick to the other’s torso, landing the second strike of the match.

However, it was then that things changed. The girl stood up with a grin on her face and fire in her eyes, almost unfazed by the fight so far, she had seemed almost happy that the fight had gone like this. Blake could understand the thrill of a fight, but this was different, the girl was smiling at her, as if peeling back her skin to reveal who she was, and Blake knew she had underestimated the girl. She couldn’t afford to give the girl space, to allow her back on the front foot, she had to end it here. She had leaned into her stance before disappearing into smoke and reappearing behind her opponent. The girl didn’t move, it was over…

Blake felt an arm grab her by the waist as she hung in mid-air, the space where her opponent was now only filled with a few, slowly cascading rose petals. She was quickly thrown to the floor and had her arms pinned by her opponent’s knees. Blake moved to struggle only to be stilled as the cold steel of a knife pressed to her neck. She looked up to see the grinning face of the younger girl just inches from her own. She cursed inwardly.

Most teleporters had some sort of limitation on their semblance. Some could only go somewhere they could see, some could only go into darkened areas and some had the embarrassment of being unable to take their clothes with them. Blake however, had the limitation of being unable to teleport whilst being in physical contact with someone else. The limitation was definitely one of the easiest to work with but was annoying in moments like this, where she found herself pinned to the floor by an opponent.

It was her turn to smile as she tapped the floor three times indicating her surrender. The sound off the computer announcing the winner blared out and hid the silence of the surrounding student body. Blake thought their suddenly quiet nature odd but thought nothing of it. The smaller girl got off of her and offered a hand to help her up.

“Good fight, was not expecting that from the first match.” The smaller girl was smiling at her, slightly reserved but happy and she couldn’t help but returned the gesture. “I mean, there are like three teleporters out of ever ten thousand people and I get paired against one in the first round.” Blake chuckled slightly offering her hand for the other to shake.

“You’re one to talk; you’re a teleporter too right?” the smaller girl took her hand but slowly shook her head. Blake looked on confused, the red eyed girl caught on.

“It’s complicated, it’s not quite teleporting, but it’s similar, maybe I’ll tell you if we are on a team at Beacon.” A hopeful smile wrote itself across her features and Blake felt a pang of guilt well up inside herself, connections to people were not her thing, nor her intention. They would only get in the way.

“Perhaps” she tried to make it sound genuine, but it was clear from the girl’s eyes that she wasn’t fooled. She nodded anyway.

“Well, guess I’ll maybe see you later Blake.” The smaller girl began walking off stage leaving the older girl a little baffled. Blake looked up at the screen to find her opponent’s rapidly disappearing name. Ruby R. _What an odd girl._

She mentally scolded herself for getting distracted and loosing. _Idiot! You’re going to lose if you do that again!_

* * *

Ruby had been left perplexed. After her bout with Blake, she had continued to watch the other matches, learning that it was best to know as much about potential opponents as possible. Overall, she was unimpressed, most made no effort to hide their abilities and as such often struggled to keep a solid winning streak after relying on the same tricks multiple times. Many of the fights had become stamina wars, where it simply came down to who could trade more hits with their opponent. Not many that lost their first match would recover in time to comeback in their next, which quickly led to the ladder being climbed, with Ruby barely acknowledging her next few opponents, all the way to the winner’s quarter finals.

All of this she had expected to at least some degree; many of the individuals here were talented, but few had been put through enough experience to warrant continuous fights. She herself wasn’t the most experienced, but her family was mainly consisted of fitness models that often appeared primarily in fantasies; Jax and Nora were sculpted like gods, her sisters had been honed into lethal machines by the aforementioned pair, and even Junior was more accurately described as a six foot ten mountain of flesh and muscle than a man. No, what left her baffled was how certain applicants were fighting.

First of all, Neo’s skill seemed to fluctuate greatly. The first match she had been in had left most of the stadium impressed and awed, but her next few had been clumsy hairline victories. Ruby was no fool; she saw how every fight where Neo would barely win, she approached seemingly downtrodden or angry, and yet, every one where she wiped the floor with her opponent, she smiled and radiated with thrill and excitement. This would be expected, most people didn’t like the prospect of loosing and often showed it when fighting, but this was different. Even after she had earned the victory, there was no celebration, like it had been hollow, worthless undeserved. The girl was holding back. Ruby was curious but her mind flicked to one of the other confusing individuals.

Blake was killing it; ever since her fight with Ruby, she hadn’t been hit even once, it had come close a few times, but never actually happened. Ruby knew Blake was skilled, more so than perhaps than everyone else in the room, besides a few, but this wasn’t what surprised her. It was how Blake was fighting that intrigued her. Whereas other participants would aim to damage the body and reduce their opponent’s aura, gaining strikes and hits wherever they could, she instead almost killed each and every one of them. Every match had ended with her blade at her opponent’s unprotected vitals with no aura to speak of. It was like a switch had been flipped, whereas the Blake Ruby had fought had seemed enthralled by the fight and the adrenaline, this Blake seemed furious and driven. Like an agitated bull she could not and would not be stopped.

Finally, she found herself staring at the blonde combat instructor. The professor had been paying an almost unhealthy amount of attention to the first round of matches, watching with a trained, critical eye and scrawling notes furiously after each bout. Yet, since the second round began, she had looked rather bored, no longer paying much attention, if any, her clipboard and notes long forgotten. As much as she was loath to admit it, she couldn’t blame the professor; the fights since the first round had seemed repetitive and uninspiring. Blake’s were slaughters, Neo’s were much the same with her, for some reason, almost purposely throwing some and the others were glorified slugfests, unpredictable sure, but not entertaining or outstanding.

Despite sympathising however, Ruby didn’t understand why the blonde was so relaxed about neglecting her apparent job. If the test would be decided on an individual performance, then it seemed as though the instructor should at least watch the matches, even if she learned nothing from them. However, Glynda could be seen paying attention to seemingly anything else. Some matches, her vigour seemed to return, yet most seemingly went unobserved.

Ruby’s matches were much the same as Blake’s; though she did not have the same ferocity as her dark acquaintance, she left her opponents flat on their backs with nary a strike hitting her. It was welcome change from the unexpected challenge of Blake and she made sure to showboat a little in order to display just how skilled she was, however, it had been Jax that had told her that greater skill was often best showed by cleanest wins, so she kept her displays minimal but apparent. At one point Neo and Blake had faced off, with Neo seemingly trying for the first few minutes and breaking even with her opponent. However, she eventually seemed to stop trying, her foot work getting clumsier and less rhythmic, before she eventually feigned a stumble, causing Blake to move in and win the match. The dark girl was clearly not satisfied with the result and quickly left the ring, not even acknowledging her opponent.

As the rounds passed Ruby found herself in the final four participants. She had been positively thrumming for a match, the initiates having been granted a fifteen-minute break just before the beginning of the previous round and her match that round had served as little more than a warmup. However, rather than start the first match of the penultimate round, the instructor simply walked into the ring and addressed the initiates. Before she spoke, Ruby heard a shuffling noise behind her and spared a glance to the viewing stalls, only to see as the older students were filing out, seemingly satisfied with the results they had seen. The girl narrowed her eyes; surely, they would want to stay for the final few fights, amongst the best new imitates. Her attention was rapidly grabbed as the blonde professor cleared her throat on stage.

“Congratulations to those who made it this far, you have grabbed the highest spots available with this test. Your individual performances will still be compared with each other, but you have earned extra points for beating your respective branches in the event. This concludes the final test for entrance, your results will be accumulated and graded by tomorrow morning and will be sent to each of you respectively, with the four of you who make it in being notified alongside your results.” The room was cast into stale silence as the message sank in, eyes widening and confusion proliferating. The professor was not bothering to hide her smirk as she finished. “Any questions?” A hand in the front row shot up and Glynda nodded at the boy to speak.

“How come the last four aren’t going to fight?” The question was met with a few acknowledging grunts and affirmations before the Professor responded.

“Fair question, this is because everyone, bar one of you, has lost at least one match meaning that there is little point in continuing. The winner of the tournament is Miss Rose.” The room somehow descended into a deeper silence as various initiates turned to stare at Ruby who simply blanched wide-eyed at the professor who refused to look back. After a moment protests and noise began again, one voice taking over the rest.

“But professor, I believe you said the tournament was a double elimination, meaning we had to lose twice to be knocked out, there are still four people with one or less lose to their name.” Glynda barely acknowledged the boy, looking down at her nails but adopting a harsh tone as she spoke.

“I did indeed, but one must learn that on the battlefield, it is rare for someone to be gifted a second chance. Take Miss Belladonna for instance, she came second in the overall tournament ranking, but was defeated in the first round by Miss Rose herself. Whilst, it was a great display of skill from her in both that match and her later matches, this means little. If it had been a battle, she would have perished at the beginning along with another fifteen of you. The double elimination rule was implemented for me to easier observe those that lost in the early rounds and rank you accordingly, but in order to earn top marks in this test, one could not be defeated even once.” The blonde finally looked up from her fingers, meeting Ruby’s gaze with a sneer as she did so. “If that is all, then I feel it is time I bid you all farewell. The campus will remain open to you for the next hour whilst you wait for your various methods of transportation to arrive. Good day.” With her final words spoken, the professor strutted up to a different door than the one they all knew to depart through.

Luckily, the other initiates filed out shortly after, leaving Ruby with her thoughts. On one hand, she was ecstatic; she had come first and hadn’t even had to fight Neo or Blake for her last fight. She clearly had earned the most points in this test and she hoped to the gods that was enough to get her through to Beacon. On another hand, she was a little scared that she had made the wrong choice; perhaps she should have used her Grimm in order to win harder and by larger margins. She was happy with her results, but that did not mean they were good enough and a part of her was reeling from her decision to hold back. Finally, she was curious. Her sisters often joked that she had adopted many of Bart’s traits, ranging from coffee addiction to fast speech patterns, but most importantly her curiosity.

Some of the other initiates were interesting, Blake and Neo coming to mind, with both definitely hiding something. The way that this test had been held was interesting too, there had been zero tolerance outside of orders and seemingly different win conditions that were indirectly revealed to them. The way that the older students had reacted was strange, leaving as if they knew the results already, not bothering to see their various bets out to conclusion, simply going with what they thought or knew would happen. It was like there was something unseen happening in the fights and that was the actual test rather than the tournament itself. Perhaps… unfortunately Bart had refused to tell her anymore, saying that Glynda would castrate him if she found out, and after meeting the demon woman for a second time, Ruby found herself forgiving his tight lips.

However, as she exited the hall and watched the others leave, she realised, most annoyingly, what the biggest mystery had been. How was she going to get home? She could run again, but after fighting and already running the trip once, she was too tired and was sure she would collapse if she did it again. She had tried ringing her aunts, uncles and Nora but none seemed to respond, seemingly still dealing with the gang business. Ruby huffed a tired sigh, a slow, occasionally semblance assisted, jog it was then.

_I feel like I’ve forgotten something about today… Well it can’t be that important._


	17. Chapter 17

“This is a stupid idea.” Ilia wasn’t happy. It had been Nora’s idea to throw a surprise party for Ruby and, like the idiots they were, none of the other sisters had bothered to question her on the specifics of what she had in mind. It had been only a few moments ago that Ilia had found out her role in the ‘surprise’ and it was clear she was far from happy with the plan. Nora had decided that it would be fun to do a pretend kidnapping and bring Ruby to the club after doing so. Immediately Ilia had tried to convince her otherwise; there were so many things that could go wrong, and it honestly scared her.

Originally, she had tried to talk the ginger out of the idea, stating that Ruby could lose control again and potentially endanger them. Nora had, however, simply smirked and said that they weren’t going to go anywhere near her whilst she was conscious. Instead Ilia had found out that she was supposed to shoot Ruby with a tranquiliser as she approached home. This had sent Ilia into a tirade about how that was even more dangerous, Ruby could either react badly to the tranquiliser or completely shrug it off and panic, not to mention when she woke up. However, Nora had shrugged and passed Ilia a dart with said tranquiliser in it.

Ilia hadn’t bothered to check the contents of the dart until only a few moments ago and was now realising how in over her head she was. The dart had been labelled ‘Carfentanil’ which had sent Ilia reeling in disbelief. _This is the stuff they use on ELEPHANTS!_ She had quickly called Nora and the twins who were waiting in the wings to retrieve the hopefully unconscious Ruby. After a moment of ringing Ilia’s earpiece beeped as Melanie picked up.

“Ilia? What’s the problem?” Melanie was relatively calm, though she had shared ilia’s concerns earlier and clearly was not in the know about what Ilia had loaded in her rifle which she had previously intended to point at Ruby.

“Put Nora on the Phone!” There was a long silence and Ilia could practically picture the twin’s face confused at the sudden request before she complied.

“Ilia?” Came the slightly surprised voice.

“What were you thinking?! I could kill Ruby with this stuff!” There was a long pause, seemingly as she was figuring out as to what Ilia was referring to, before Nora eventually replied.

“What? Nah… she’ll be fine.” Nora let out a nervous chuckle she hoped Ilia didn’t hear. Ilia caught it.

“Zero point zero two milligrams of this stuff can prove lethal to regular people! This dart has at least three grams in it!” Ilia’s outburst was met with a thoughtful hum as Nora contemplated on the other side of the phone.

“Your right… I shoulda’ made it five… Oh well, I’m sure she’ll be drowsy enough for us to move, at least for a few minutes.” Ilia simply stood there, mouth agape and mind reeling from Nora’s words.

“Nora, perhaps you didn’t hear me right; two-hundredths of a milligram is lethal to people.” Ilia spoke slowly and calmly, hoping that perhaps Nora had missed something in the conversation. Her hopes were quickly dashed.

“Yhea, I know, you said. What’s your point?” Ilia couldn’t hold herself back anymore, the ginger woman had gone mad.

“The point is, she has a better chance of surviving if I just straight up shot her with a regular bullet! How can you be so calm?! You’re asking me to kill her!” Ilia paused to let her words sink in for a moment and Nora didn’t reply, the earpiece having gone silent. After a moment longer the sound of raucous laughter broke the heavy silence. Ilia just stared at the dart, seriously considering the chances of the older woman having gone insane. After a few more moments of snorting and giggling, Nora finally spoke up.

“Ilia, remember that time we went to the Vacuo when you and the girls were younger?” A few images from Ilia’s childhood flashed in her mind causing her to hum in confirmation after a moment. One image in particular forced its way to the front of her mind’s eye, the sight of a near catatonic Ruby, pale, lifeless and sprawled across the floor like a toppled mannequin. “Then I’m sure you remember that Ruby was bitten by that cobra in the sand. As much as it was a harrowing scare, it taught us something about Ruby’s immune system; it isn’t human.” Ilia looked confused for a moment; as a child she hadn’t been privy to the scene of the adults trying to stabilise Ruby, being told she would only get in the way.

“I’m sorry, I’m confused; she survived sure, but Joy was there to help…” she was cut off as Nora let out a small chuckle.

“Yhea… you see that’s the thing; Joy’s semblance is useless against venoms. It allows her to forcibly regenerate tissue and creates proteins and energy for the body to use to speed up the healing process exponentially, but it can’t force a foreign element out of the body.” Ilia’s confusion only deepened; if that was the case, how had Ruby survived, the next morning the young girl had been almost back to one hundred percent and running around with the rest of them. Then it clicked.

“But… how?” That snake was super venomous, she had some of said venom back home to use, not that she ever had, but it was nice to take precautions. No human had any right surviving a bite without immediate medical attention, let alone be back to normal the next day.

“Funny thing about Grimm blood; it’s _very_ resilient. I’ve only got a little bit in me, so it helps me shrug of illnesses quickly and makes me immune to most common colds and the such. Ruby, on the other hand, has a lot more than me, trust me when I say, if she is unconscious for more than an hour, hell would have frozen over.” Ilia let out a bated breath, finally happy that Nora had a reason for giving her the dart. She was far from comfortable with the prospect, but at least Nora presented a sound case.

“Well… Ok, as long as you’re sure that she’ll be fine…” The faunas made to continue but was cut off by a slightly stuttered cough which immediately set her on edge again. “Nora? She _will_ be fine right?” The tone she used was sharp and tipped with an underlying threat that Nora was all too aware of.

“O-Of course she’ll be fine! I mean what kind of big sister would I be if I would inject my younger sibling with a slightly altered chemical? Yhea… she’ll be right as rain… one hundred… ninety… sixty percent sure… Hey, did you know how expensive coffee is these days?” Ilia’s concerns reignited as she heard Nora begin to try and change the topic.

“Nora, what did you do?” She was met with only silence as the seconds tick painfully by. “I swear if you…” she was interrupted by a sudden and almost unintelligible slew from Nora.

“Ok so I may have added in something to make her lighten up a little bit. Ya’ know, just to take the edge off for a bit, maybe mellow her out some? I’ve seen her worked up over the last few days and I thought maybe it would be best if she forgot about that for a bit.” The ginger trailed off as Ilia stared thoughtfully at her rifle and dart. Long moments past before eventually the Faunas laughed. It was short, to the point and controlled, more akin to a chuckle than a proper laugh, but it was heartfelt. Another moment passed as Nora heard the tell-tale sound of a rifle chambering a shot through the phone. “Ilia?”

“Don’t say I never do anything for you.” Nora let out a sigh of relief; the whole plan had banked on Ilia agreeing to make the shot, Ruby being too dangerous to subdue with other methods. “Ruby should be here any minute now, make sure you’re hidden but nearby to pick her up when I take the shot.” Nora practically cheered her agreement, making to hang up after doing so but was interrupted by Ilia speaking one last time. “Just know, if I kill Ruby with this, I can hit a speeding car over a mile out and these roads are looking mighty empty of witnesses.” She practically sung the slightly playful, but simultaneously serious, threat across the call as she caught sight of red and black on the horizon.

Nora gulped a little; she could put Ilia on her ass in a straight fight, not to mention with her Grimm, but Ilia hadn’t been trained to fight, at least not primarily, and Nora didn’t like her chances with over seven hundred meters between them. _Everything will be fine. Ruby’s a tough girl, certainly a monster in her own right. It’s all under control…Right?_

A shot rang out eventually followed by the sound of drowsy stumbling and eventually a dull thump as an unconscious body hit the floor.

* * *

Bart supressed a chuckle as Nora walked into club with Ruby slung over her shoulder. He found it rather amusing really, after all, though the method may be unusual, it was far from abnormal for a family to throw a surprise party and yet his family were all clearly tired from the amount of effort this party had taken to throw. He himself had to mark thirty-two papers from the test Ruby’s piers had taken that day, he may have only had to mark the history section but it was at the beginning of the paper and so, unlike other subjects, wasn’t likely to have many blanks and he had only three hours to mark if he wanted to be here for the party. He supposed he only marked thirty-one papers, his gaze flicking over to his youngest niece, a slight frown found its way onto his features. They would work on her punctuality, or Glynda would make sure he never heard the end of it.

A groan drew the history professor’s attention from his nieces as they worked on securing ruby to a chair without her Grimm getting too aggressive, they had known the rose wouldn’t react kindly, but had banked on it being told to never harm them by Ruby herself, luckily it seemed their gamble had paid off. The groan belonged to Jax as he held an ice pack to the side of his jaw and Joy repeatedly swatted his shoulder and reprimanded him for his recklessness. The note they had left for Ruby hadn’t been entirely false, there had been a gang war, but only some of them had gone to sort it out. The group wanted to be back in time for the party and it seemed Jax had decided it was taking too long and thrown his restraint to the wind. Ultimately, he was fine but a lucky swing from a bat to the jaw had been causing him grief since the adrenaline wore off.

“One of these days Jax, you are going to pull a stunt like this and the punk who gets a lucky hit in will have more than a baseball bat and I won’t be there to stich ya’ back together.” The big man made to get a retort out but a slap to the uninjured side of his head made quickly shut him up, though he made a point to growl to the best of his ability, his jaw making it harder than he would likely admit. “Oh, quit grumbling like a mut, or I’ll buy you a muzzle.” Jax remained silent but let his distaste show on his face. Bart tried to hide smirk as he saw Ilia sneakily record the pit fighter being talked down to by a woman as minute as Joy.

He tore his gaze from the comical scene, taking in the rest of their misfit family hastily apply the final touches for the party. He watched as they scrambled about, hiding ladders, presents and anything else that would give away the surprise too soon. Nora planned to have only the part of the room immediately around Ruby illuminated and everything else hidden in the shadows, she wanted to play with the girl a bit before revealing that it had all been a pleasant ruse. Bart himself, along with most of the others had been against this plan initially, thinking of everything that could go wrong, but eventually Nora had won out and stated that if things went south they only had to turn the lights on and Ruby would realise it had all been playful and she was in no actual danger. He himself still had reservations, but alas she managed to convince the majority and that had always been how the club operated. Junior made the important decisions and more often than not people would agree with whatever he said, but he would never do something that they all openly objected to, that is unless he thought it was for their own safety.

A sad sigh passed his lips, the only outward sign of battered mental state. He wished Junior could have been there, with them all, to see their youngest take her first steps into adulthood. He wished he could see as the largest man he had ever known struggled to bite back tears as the party transpired and the girls laughed amongst their family. Junior had always been a softy at heart; sure, he had broken some bones to get where he was, but he had always done it for the greater good of their family, never once raising his hand against any of them, even when they perhaps deserved it. Bart subdued another chuckle as the memory of a young Jax and Junior arguing in an alley surfaced in his mind, it had been long and drawn out and eventually Jax had gotten physical. At the time, Jax hadn’t really gotten into fighting yet and Junior had already started becoming a giant and could have easily sat the smaller boy on his ass. Yet, every time Jax swung, Junior took it, every time Jax knocked him down, he stood back up and never once struck back. Junior was aware that blood sometimes had to be spilled in their way of life, but he would never do it to those he didn’t think deserved it.

Junior had originally been the only one amongst them to have a hand in criminal dealings. He had tried to keep them separate from the life they now lived, hoping that they could turn a blind eye to his struggling as he did what he needed to keep them all fed. In a way Bart wished his family had done as Junior hoped, that they had managed to pull themselves from the poverty into which they were thrust and emerged as pioneers in various areas of business. However, a much larger part of him couldn’t think of his family in that light; they were far too stubborn. The system that was supposed to protect them as children had failed them, but rather than crawl back crying and complaining like most children their age would have done, they had stood together, on their own feet, and survived without it, whatever the cost.

A surprised yelp split the silent anticipation, drawing the historian out of his darkened stupor, quickly he turned on his heels to see what had happened. He didn’t have to look far as he beheld the scene before him. It seemed that Ruby was close to waking, it had, by his best estimates, been at most half an hour since she had been injected with the tranquiliser and the girl was already beginning to stir. As the their youngest tossed around slightly in her chair the rest of the club watched as faint tendrils of black snaked their way along the floor, almost imperceptible if not for the bright light swinging gently over the girl’s head. She wouldn’t likely wake calmly and more than a few of them found themselves once again doubting Nora’s plan. Ilia was the most vocal as she began glaring at the ginger and speaking in a hushed voice.

“Nora, I thought you said we had an hour!?” She hissed her eyes and freckles flashing yellow whilst her skin slipped to a bright shade of red, something they had come to know happened when she was angry. The ginger let out a forced chuckle, sweat dropping slowly off her brow, as she backed away from the agitated Faunas.

“Heh… well… technically I said she wouldn’t be asleep for _more_ than an hour…” The twins an Ilia continued to glare at the older woman causing her to raise her hands in mock surrender as she took another step back.

“It’s been twenty-seven minutes! I set a timer to make sure we didn’t get caught off guard!” Ilia waved her wristwatch displaying that she had indeed set a timer and that they were roughly halfway through the twenty-eighth minute.

“Okay… so I _may_ have _slightly_ overestimated our time allowance.” Nora dared another glance at the girls grilling her only to immediately re-avert her gaze from the seething trio. There was a moment of tense silence before Nora let out a defeated sigh. “It’s not like I could just search it up on the internet okay. I mean, the Branwens are the only ones who are likely to know this stuff, it’s not exactly public knowledge.” This seemed to only ignite Ilia further.

“Why not ask Raijin? He _is_ a Grimm!” Bart drew worried as the hissing between the girls began to grow louder and his youngest niece seemed to stir more and more. Nora simply scoffed.

“Oh, and I’m sure he knows the in-depth effects of a _manmade_ drug on a Grimm’s biology…” the sarcasm only stoked the flames and Ilia made to comeback but was cut off as Bart stepped in between the two.

“Girls, I’m not sure now is the best time for this.” He gestured to the slowly rousing Ruby and both seemed to immediately remember what they were arguing over. He held back a chuckle as he practically heard the ‘ _shit’_ in their heads. The girls immediately backed off, rushing to finish what they could in the few remaining seconds they had left before their younger sister awoke from her forcefully induced nap.

A tense minute passed as the club members clambered into their various positions ending with Ruby bathed in light from the lamp above and the rest of the room swamped in a thick black curtain of darkness. Ilia took her post beside the main light switch, being a Faunas, could see in the dark and so would be the best at noticing if the situation went south. Nora waited in trembling anticipation behind Ruby, waiting to do her part to scare Ruby as best she could before they sprung the surprise. Bart and the others waited with bated breath in the seemingly endless black shadow, waiting for their cue.

Bart prayed his breathing was quiet enough as he struggled to suppress a gulp as red eyes flickered drowsily opened.

* * *

She could feel before she could see. The usually smooth vines coiled around her arm were coarse and tense, agitated, afraid and aware, of what she did not know. She moved to calm them, or at least she had tried, only to be restricted by the biting iron grasp of some form of hand cuffs tying her to whatever she was sat against.

Ruby made to open her eyes, the process slow and agonising, an overwhelmingly bright light flooding into her recovering vision. Even after her sight became clearer, she couldn’t see much; the only illuminated part of the room she could see extended to a few inches from the edge of her feet. Glancing at her body she let out a relieved sigh to see she at least hadn’t been touched yet, she still had time. She could feel the rose around her wrist writhe as heavy footfalls slowly began to pace just outside of the illuminated ring that surrounded her.

For a moment she strained to catch a glimpse of her captor, but every time she thought she managed to make something out it seemed to withdraw further into the shadows. A faint shuffling in the background alerted her of other people in the darkened recesses of the room, likely henchmen or other gang members. Ruby found herself silently praying for her family’s safety; if the gang war they had gone to stop had gone south then perhaps these people were here to clean up the remnants. It was but a moment later she huffed in amusement; _of course, that couldn’t be it, no gang could hold even a flicker of a candle to Junior’s club, hell, Jax was capable of putting some gangs down himself and Nora was a small army in and of herself. So then why were they here?_

She wasn’t left to ponder for long, the rather exaggerated pacing came to an abrupt halt behind her, whoever it was exhaling hot and heavy breath down the back of her neck. Ruby looked across what parts of the room she could, refraining to call on the red eyes that hid within the shadows around her. It was rather comical she supposed, after all, her Grimm came from her shadow and her captor had unknowingly surrounded her in her greatest advantage over them. All it would take was for her to loosen her grip on the snarling creatures that hid in the darkness and the room would become a slaughterhouse. The tests today may have been tedious and unfair, but it was exactly that which made her strong. The applicants had all been very stressed, some distraught at their performances and others livid at the rules that had been presented to them. The rose had been feasting like a king all day, storing each and every emotion for later use, a use which it was now itching to trigger. She would bide her time, but she wasn’t helpless.

“How nice of you to join us Miss Rose.” The voice was robotic, likely ran through a voice changer of some sort. She wandered why they felt the need to take such measures, but assumed there was some reason, perhaps she had known them, or may go on to know them. Regardless, she made a show of struggling and answered.

“Who are you?” She growled her words, something she could hear echo throughout her Grimm, it was an intimidation tactic. She was surprised when she was only met by metallic chuckling and further pacing behind her.

“Miss Rose, where would the fun be in me just telling you that? But, if you must know something, it’s that I do not fear you little pets. Afterall, I’m sure your sisters wouldn’t appreciate us resorting to our contingency plan.” Another dark chuckle as Ruby’s eyes widened at the thinly veiled threat. She found herself loosening the grip on her Grimm as her captor spoke, only her fear for her sisters keeping her in check.

“What do you want?” The words were once again more growled than spoken but the mysterious person seemed to hear her none the less. Ruby could hear the heavy footfalls circle around her, eventually coming to a halt mere inches from the edge of the black abyss.

“What I want?” A short laugh followed. “What I want is something only you can give me. Something, that no matter how hard I tried, I could not obtain without you. Something you have denied me for the last four years.” Ruby tensed as the person grew closer features slowly becoming clear as they spoke. “What I want…” a white shirt, tightly wrapped around a sizable bust, emerged from the shadow. “All I want…” the voice slowly changed towards the end, becoming less robotic and turning into a woman’s voice, a familiar voice, though she failed to place it immediately. “Is for you…” ginger hair burned in the overhead lamp and Ruby’s eyes widened. “To enjoy your damned birthday!” As if by clockwork the lights flashed on and Ruby was startled by the sudden chorus of her family’s voices.

“Happy birthday!”

For a moment the room fell silent as the girl processed what happened, her heart threatening to burst from her chest with its rapid beating. Eventually her mind cleared, and she let out a small relieved laugh. Her gathered family seemed to immediately brighten again and began cheering and mingling, her sisters moving to uncuff her as Nora threw the voice changer across the room, Ruby staring at her all the while.

“I hate you, ya’ know that?” the words were light-hearted, and Nora simply laughed them off as she offered Ruby a hand up. “I mean, I’ve heard of fake kidnappings before, but knocking me out? Really?” She rubbed her wrists, a little sore from the cuffs being perhaps a little too convincing.

“What else were we supposed to do? I mean, if we tried to do it when you were awake you would have either known it was us or reacted poorly and used your mark.” Ruby supposed she had a point, she didn’t like it and pouted to show her disapproval. She made to speak and argue but Nora cut her off. “Hey, cut me some slack okay, it was the only idea we came up with and I refused to let you talk us out of holding a party for you for a fifth year in a row. I will not let you take this from me Rubes; I’ve always wanted to do this, and your sisters were always off partying with friends for their birthdays.” Before Ruby could argue further Nora pushed her into the waiting arms of the twins who promptly dragged her over to the present table.

The whole club was a little guilty of being at list a little doting on Ruby, even Joy’s stone-like exterior seemed to soften around the girl, but Melanie and Miltia took it to another level. The twins had practically raised Ruby and Ilia and had never quite realised just how much they would enjoy having younger siblings, unfortunately Ilia had always been very independent, so they sometimes went a little overboard for their youngest.

Nora was plucked from her thoughts as Jax shimmied up next to her, the lack of his ice pack indicating that his jaw had at least stopped aching him. Her wrapped her in a one-armed hug and she found herself leaning into the big man as they watched the girls as Ruby fought to get a word in amongst her older siblings.

“Always wanted to throw a party huh? Never pictured you for the doting type.” Jax mumbled it into the top of her hair and she stifled a giggle as she slapped his stomach. It was true, she had tried to be a little stricter than some of the other club members, wanting the girls not to forget the importance of standing on their own feet, but she wasn’t about to let him get the last word in.

“Sure I am; I even let you be on top every now and then.” Jax, who had been drinking some of the probably spiked punch, coughed at the remark and some of the surrounding club members laughed at his embarrassment. Nora herself failed to restrain her own laughter at his reaction but didn’t move from her place pressed against his chest. “What about you tin man? You seemed to want to be here badly enough, you weren’t even the one who had to convince Ilia to shoot Ruby.” Jax simply shrugged as she looked up at him.

“Eh, what can I say, things have been to serious lately, a change of pace would be nice.” Nora leant further into him, humming her agreement as she stole his drink and took her own swig. “Bedsides, I’m basically bullet proof” Nora scoffed and lightly smacked his jaw causing him to wince and hiss as she did so.

“You aren’t immortal, if some punk with a bat can get lucky so can someone who could actually harm you for real.” Jax just huffed, as if bored, and waved her off. Eventually he donned a grin.

“And you’re one to talk.” Nora adopted her own smirk, deciding they had been talking for long enough and that Ruby probably needed saving from her sisters right about now. Jax groaned as he made to get up from the bar side with Nora’s help. An errant thought entered her mind a moment before she moved, causing her to turn to Jax once more.

“Have you got it?” Jax’s smirk dropped, a sympathetic tone entering his eyes. Eventually he nodded, pulling out a small white box with a red ribbon tied rather comically atop the lid from behind the bar counter. The box was roughly two feet in each dimension, being ever so slightly longer in one than the others. Neither of them had dared open it, or even touch when it wasn’t necessary, Junior had expressed the need for Ruby to have it and they weren’t about to go against his wishes. A sad smile made its way to Nora’s face. “I guess it’s time we give it to her huh?” Jax simply mimicked her smile and nodded again.

-

Ruby found herself actually rather enjoying the party so far, though she was determined not to let it show. She had managed to dissuade her family from throwing her a party for the last four years; there wasn’t a secret reason or anything, she just didn’t like overblown celebrations. Luckily, it seemed Nora hadn’t invited any people her age or any of her sister’s friends, Ruby could deal with just her family.

She could, however, go without the twins for a few minutes; their cooing and ‘aww-ing’ at seeing her wear everything they had got her had gotten tiresome very quickly. She loved them dearly, but she didn’t love the babying. It was, however, nice to see them so animated, ever since Junior had been kept in the hospital they had both been rather muted and depressed, but she was happy if they were and so for the sake of their enjoyment she would grin and bear it.

Her Grimm had mostly calmed down, the thorns had retracted, the vines had smoothened, and her shadow had obediently shrunk back into its natural position. She may not have known much about it, but she supposed she was lucky that it listened at least, most of the time. However, as the twins fell into another argument about what she would wear for them next she felt the rose grow lively once more, not in alarm or panic but, as it pulled on her arm, almost in longing or excitement.

Ruby looked up, towards where the Grimm was pulling her, to see Nora and Jax approaching, slightly solemn smiles plastered across their faces and a box in Jax’s arms. Ruby tried not to let her growing concern show even as she could feel the vines of the rose slowly peel back her long sleeves in avid anticipation as the two drew close. Slowly Jax extended the box towards her, a rare showing of warmth entering his eyes.

“Happy birthday squirt.” The room was silent as Ruby let her own smile grace her lips and she cautiously reached her hand out towards the gift as if scared touching it would tarnish it. Jax knew one of the things in the box, he had help design them after all, but as to what else was in the box he didn’t know and was almost as eager to find out as he knew Ruby was, though admittedly she seemed hesitant. Even after she fully grasped the box Ruby found herself pausing to open it. A moment later a gentle hand settled itself on her shoulder. She traced it back to its owner, meeting an encouraging smile from Nora. Levelling her gaze appreciatively towards the ginger, she slowly began opening the box.

The ribbon came away with little resistance, the silken material falling to the floor as it released its grip of the box. Ruby paused as she inspected the box, it was plain, with nary a marking on it, the only break in its perfectly white surfaces were the occasional crease or slight dent, indicating that it had be moved around a fair amount. Carefully, as if it were made of glass, she removed the lid and immediately her eyes widened.

There, atop a black sheet of cloth with golden embroidery of the club’s logo, was a note written in Juniors handwriting addressed to her. It was clear that there was more underneath the cloth, but Ruby felt that the owed Junior enough to read the note first.

_Dear Ruby,_

_I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for the big day; I hope you can forgive me._

_Bart told me how well you did in the combat exam and I want you to know that I couldn’t be prouder, none of us could._

_As with each of us before you, inside is a personalised weapon to show you will always be a part of our family, though in your case it is technically three weapons._

_There is something else in this box as well, something I hope you like. I found it about a year ago and was going to give it to you after you got accepted into Beacon, but I figured that, with things being the way they are, it was best to give it to as you became an adult instead. I only wish I could be there to see your face._

Ruby sniffed, wiping a tear she hadn’t realised she had been shedding, a faint chuckling escaping her lips as she flipped the note over to continue reading.

_No matter what happens, whether I survive or pass away, whether you make it into Beacon this year or not, even if hell itself comes calling, you will always have a home and a family here with us. Don’t you dare think, for even a second, that we won’t still protect and love you just because your other family have shown interest in you at last._

_Whether you are a junkie, a half Grimm, a huntress or even a princess._

_You’ll always be my little girl._

_Nothing can change that._

_~Junior_

Ruby failed to stop a tear fall onto the note and wiped her eyes with her sleeve before carefully placing the card on the nearby table. Almost surgically she lifted the cloth, unsure if she could continue opening the gift if she stopped. With the sheet removed, three objects were revealed, held by the gentle caress of a pristine white fabric.

The first was a handgun she was familiar with, the newer model of the piece she had strapped to her thigh. It supposedly had far greater stopping power than her own, but that wasn’t what gave her pause. No, it was the intricate design that had been lacquered and fitted to the weapon. It was primarily black with the barrel and trigger guard being delicately wrapped in golden vines and a dozen silver roses flowering on either side of the grip. It was beautiful, but with great effort she tore her gaze away to look at the other two objects.

As she somewhat expected they were a pair of twin daggers crossed over each other but their blades gave her pause. From hilt to pommel were once again decorated with rose patterns, one with gold and the other with silver. The blades were long enough to reach from her wrist to her elbow, almost long enough to qualify as shortswords, but more noticeably, they were each inscribed with the mantra ‘ _keep Moving Forward’._

Ruby could tell that she was close to crying in full, the occasional tear slipping through her defences, but she tried to press on. She picked up the weapons and almost reverently placed them beside the note. She breathed deeply, mentally preparing herself for the last thing in the box, whatever was underneath the cloth. The box didn’t feel that heavy, so she assumed it was something small, but was caught off guard as a flash of pain shot up her arm as she reached to move the material.

Everyone gathered simply stood in shocked awe as, for the first time in eight years, the rose, that had symbiotically attached itself to Ruby after she created it, separated from her wrist and slid into the box and disappeared beneath the whit fabric. Ruby herself hissed slightly as she grasped the now bleeding hole left behind from the plant’s sudden departure. Her aura quickly fixed the injury but couldn’t do anything about the uncomfortable loss of the familiar weight against Ruby’s arm. A moment passed and Ruby decided to see what the rose had done and why.

She grabbed the white cloth and pulled it from the box, expecting to see the rose and an object underneath, only to be met with an empty box. For a moment she simply watched the box, confused and unaware of what transpired in her hand.

Bart noticed and his eyes widened in disbelief. Ruby noticed her uncle’s reaction and slowly turned to look at the cloth in her hand. Only to drop the box as she drew her hand up to cover up a gasp at what she saw. The cloth had unfolded into a long familiar white cloak, the inside a stark red in contrast with the pristinely white outer layer. _Her mother’s cloak._ Ruby froze as she watched the Rose weave itself along the collar and edges of the inside of the cloak, thinning its vines into minute threads of black string, the roses dotting themselves seemingly randomly along the interior.

The girl simply stood in trembling silence before falling to her knees the cloak cradled in her arms. Carefully Nora lowered herself to Ruby’s level and pushed the smaller girls head into her shoulder and gently wrapped her in her embrace. The twins and Ilia quickly but cautiously joined the pair and it was then, amongst her family, her sisters, her uncles, her aunts and her mother’s cloak, that Ruby let her grip falter; and she wept.


	18. Chapter 18

The ‘Junior’s Club’ members had never been what one may consider a normal family. Even putting aside, the abilities wielded by two of its members, one would be hard pressed to categorise them as even abnormal. They were, for lack of a better term, weird. They had appeared, from seemingly nowhere, just over twenty years ago, and taken Vale’s criminal underworld by storm, wresting control over the largest gang territory in little over a month.

They were eccentric, they were rowdy, and they were well respected. Certain members were legends in their own right; Jax ‘The Man of Steel’, Joy ‘The Miracle Worker’ or most renowned of them all, Junior ‘The Black Bear’. Yet, even someone familiar with the family’s antics would find the scene before them perplexing, and it was exactly this fact that had created a small clearing on the transport around the gathered group of girls.

“Come on Rubes, it’s not that bad.” Ilia’s patience was wearing thin as the transport ship hummed to life, ready for take-of. She had always thought of Ruby as brilliant. Eccentric, obsessive and at times annoying, but brilliant. The younger girl had always seemed to excel at most of what she put her mind too, making achievements far beyond what her age dictated she should be capable of. However, it was exactly this brilliance that was now causing her issues.

The previous morning, the girls had woken to the sound of an ecstatic Nora bursting into their shared dining room. The bubbly ginger had all but thrown herself across the table taking all of them to the ground with her, groaning, yelping and protesting as they did so. Their results had come in and all of them had made into the current academic year at Beacon. They were all a little surprised they would have to attend immediately the next day, but were, overall, happy to have made it. Or at least most of them were.

Ruby’s joy had lasted all of a few minutes before her curiosity had gotten the best of her. The letters not only contained their written acceptance from the Headmaster, along with things they may need to know such as arrival deadlines and a few important rules, but also the applicant’s placement rank amongst their Year group. She hadn’t expected to come near the top, far from it in fact, but she had hoped to perhaps make middle of the table, but as her eyes travelled further and further down the list her heart sank. She had, unfortunately, been ranked the lowest of this year’s applicants. She understood; after all, she had missed one of the tests, but she had secretly hoped they would let that go after her performance in the second test directly afterwards.

“That’s easy for you to say; you’re in the top eight!” Ruby cupped her hands over her face in a vain attempt at hiding herself from the other students who had filed onto the transport ship with them. Doing so muffled her words slightly, but if she minded, she didn’t let it show. “How am I even supposed to introduce myself to people? ‘Hi, I’m Ruby Rose, nice to meet you’.” Ruby feigned excitement as she pretended to be in a conversation with someone. Her voice swapped adopting a deeper tone to imply someone else replied. “’Ruby Rose? Aren’t you the one who ranked lowest?’” Ruby groaned and hid her face again. “I’m never gonna live it down.”

Ilia, to her credit, managed to hide her mocking smirk at the rather childish display her younger sister put on and simply rolled her eyes in annoyance. Ruby had never been very socially aware, she could hold a conversation just fine and was more than likable, but she had never actively engaged in anything that required the attendance of more than a few people she wasn’t familiar with. She would never attend parties with her sisters especially not ones without them. Ruby may have hated being babied and tried to be as independent as she could, but nothing would send her running back to the waiting embrace of her sisters quicker than a large group of people she didn’t know.

“You’ll be fine; I doubt anybody even bothered to check the names on the list after they found themselves. Besides, it’s only where you start, you’ll raise your grade in no time.” Ruby simply grumbled and muttered something incomprehensible into her hands. Ilia saw her younger sister’s momentary distraction and quickly grabbed the twins by their wrists, corralling them into a huddle just out of Ruby’s earshot. Both of the girls gave her confused glances but complied when she gestured for them to lean close for her to whisper.

“You know what we have to do right?” The twins simply gave each other blank looks before shaking their heads at Ilia. The faunus let out a tired sigh as she deadpanned at the two. “When we get to Beacon, we should let her try and make friends…” The twins simply stared again, their expressions reading ‘well obviously?’, Ilia rolled her eyes. “On her own.” The pair immediately realised what she was insinuating, Miltia didn’t seem keen on the implications.

“You want us to ditch her immediately?” Her voice was warning, not entirely convinced by Ilia’s plan. “You know she’ll kill us, right?” Ilia groaned at her words.

“Oh, come one. It’s for her own good, besides, what’s she gonna do?” She looked to the other twin for support. “You at least can agree with me, right Mel?” The white twin hummed, seemingly in deep thought, her eyes adopting a slightly horrified glint as she imagined certain scenarios play out.

“I agree it’s good for her…” She had barely gotten her words out before Ilia jumped on the opportunity.

“See, it’ll be fine. She’ll do great.” She moved to continue but Melanie began speaking again.

“But you and I both know what she’ll do to us as repercussions. Are you sure you wanna’ go through that again?” Melanie looked haunted as she locked her gaze with her faunus sister, who simply looked confused before donning her own terrified look. Ilia began nervously chuckling glancing over her shoulder, thankful to see her younger sister still moping with her face in her hands.

“N-No, she wouldn’t resort to… _that_ … would she?” The end came out as a concerned squeak as she once again checked on Ruby out of the corner of her eye.

“She would.” The twins said unanimously, no hint of hesitation slipping into their tones. Ruby _would_ resort to that _,_ and she would do it with a smile on her face and a gleam in her eye. Ilia gulped as she scrambled through her brain for a loophole. After a moment, the twins watched as a metaphorical light bulb lit up above Ilia’s head.

“All three of us chose to do first aid and combat medicine, right?” The red and white pair slowly nodded, confused. “Well, what if we told her there is a meet and greet seminar for that course? Then she wouldn’t be able to come with us and couldn’t get angry with us for ditching her.” Ilia looked chuffed with herself, prompting Miltia to turn to Melanie for her opinion. The white twin simply shrugged; it was certainly a better idea than just high tailing it as soon as the transport landed. Eventually, Miltia reluctantly nodded her assent to Ilia’s plan, though she couldn’t shake the feeling she was making a mistake. Perhaps it was the trauma from the last time she had experienced _that._

Her thoughts were interrupted as the sound of someone’s stomach emptying itself, split through the calm chatting that had previously filled the ship. Miltia looked over to see the sorry remains of a blonde boy groaning and an angry girl squawk at him whilst she tried desperately to save her shoes from the boy’s upset insides.

* * *

Gradually, the ever-present thrumming of the bullhead’s engines dulled as it slowly lowered itself to the ground of Beacon’s airfield. Term time had started, and as such the new students had been picked up by the school’s airships. It was Beacon’s policy, that once the semester started, anyone who wasn’t a member of staff, a student or a specified guest, could not enter school grounds. There were several reasons for this, the main one being that a school full of hormone fuelled children armed to the teeth was far from the safest area for the average civilian. However, understandably, this had left some of the students a little nervous.

Ruby found herself being one of those people; there were perhaps forty people on this aircraft, and she knew three of them. What was worse was that those three were all seemingly ready to bolt and wouldn’t look her in the eye when she asked what was wrong. As the flight had reached its end all three of her sisters had slowly become more distant, as if…

A sudden hissing filled the air as the large metal doors of the aircraft opened and revealed a walkway leading the way into the airfield and eventually the familiar courtyard of Beacon academy some hundred metres away. Ruby’s gaze quickly flicked back to the other three and she immediately noticed they were all ready to turn and leave. Her eyes narrowed.

“Guys?” Her tone was questioning, and she noticed as Melanie winced at her voice. It was Ilia who met her gaze, a little calmer than the others but Ruby could see her footwork was prepared to run at a moment’s notice.

“Don’t worry Rubes, we have an early meet up for first aid, we’ll see ya in the opening ceremony.” She swivelled on her heels setting a brisk pace to increase the gap between her and her sister before she could retort. Ruby held up her hand to slow them down and call out but was quickly blocked off as the swarm of new students robbed her of her view of her sisters.

“I… Wait! Hey! Wait Ilia!” She tried to push past a burly boy with ginger hair and a symbol of a bird on his front, only to be shoved back and be sent to the back of the human wave. Eventually she gave up her futile attempts to get off quicker and let out frustrated sigh only to be met by a chuckle from besides her.

Ruby turned to see a tall, blonde boy, the same one who had thrown up earlier giving her a sympathetic look. He was well built she supposed, not anything special, a little underwhelming even, but he had nice eyes though, a calming dark blue. He seemed approachable enough and the fresh handprint across the right side of his face her was absently nursing made her return the amused laugh.

“Women am I right?” He said, a smile plastering itself across his lips only to be replaced by a wince as the right side of his face argued with the movement. Ruby simply laughed and nodded as the two began to walk out of the bullhead. “Yhea, I got sisters too, can be a pain in the ass being the youngest.” Ruby simply looked at him surprised; it wasn’t often someone figured her relation to her siblings, often they assumed them to be friends, or at least cousins, due to her lack of resemblance to them. Eventually she looked up at him mirthfully.

“Tell me about it. I mean, one minute its ‘you’re too young for this’ and then all of a sudden its ‘Your too old to be doing this’, I mean at least be consistent.” Ruby made wild gestures with her hands as she entered her tirade, causing the boy to laugh heartily, seemingly forgetting his pain. It was at that point that Ruby realised an issue. “Oh, where are my manners, I’m ruby Rose nice to meet you.” She held out her hand which he eventually shook.

“Name’s Jaune, Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls of the tongue, ladies love it…” He flashed her a winning smile. She simply looked at him incredulously a smirk clear on her features as she looked at the glowing red handprint on his face.

“Do they?” Her tone was teasing, and he seemed to deflate as she spoke before quickly recovering and replying.

“W-Well they will.” He gazed of into the distance for a moment as if imagining the scene before realising he was with company once more. “So, three sisters huh? All of you coming to Beacon at the same time too?” He looked unfazed by the notion, but his tone suggested he couldn’t quite figure the situation out.

“Yhea, I’m two years younger than Ilia and Mel and Mil are four years older again, we decided we all wanted to go together so I applied to enter early, and the twins waited a few years for us to be ready.” Jaune hummed as he nodded at her explanation before donning a smirk.

“That couldn’t be me; no way I could go through school with six elder sisters breathing down my neck every few seconds.” Ruby’s eyes widened at the nonchalant way he spoke. He turned to see her looking at him mouth agape, a confused look crossing his face. “What?”

“Six?” Jaune nodded.

“All I can say is my Mom’s a demon. If my dad had been anybody else, I think he may have died by now.” He shuddered as a memory surfaced in his head. “My dad sat me down once, when I asked about it, and said ‘Boy When Samantha Arc is in ‘the mood’, one does not get in the way’.” Ruby couldn’t help but shiver herself as a very real horror overcame the boy’s face. She tore her gaze away, taking in the scenery around them before turning around and looking at them as they walked, walking backwards in the process.

“Soooo… you nervous?” He looked at her confused. “Ya know, about going to Beacon, Teams, Partners, grades etc.” For a moment Jaune didn’t answer, but his stride notably slowed as the enormity of his situation seemed to catch up with him all at once.

“You know, I hadn’t really thought about it much.” He paused his bright demeanour from before diminishing slowly as he thought. “Is it true that the bottom two teams of each year have to give up half of their summer break for extra lessons?” The boy seemed terrified at the prospect and Ruby couldn’t help but prod the momentary weakness.

“Why? Do you think you’ll be one of those teams?” Her tone was teasing but he seemed to jerk away in an all too real fashion.

“What? No. Of course not. I’m just… wondering if the school was as spartan as it’s made out to be.” He spoke to fast for Ruby to even pretend she believed him. Giving him a knowing look, he eventually deflated again. “Okay, maybe I’m a little worried, but can you blame me? We’re at Beacon freaking academy!” Ruby huffed a laugh as he became overstressed.

“You’ll be fine vomit boy; the teachers here are the best…” her mind flashed to her uncle Bart and his friend Peter Port who also taught here. “quirky, but the best no less.” He looked befuddled for a moment, eventually she returned the gesture. “What?”

“’Vomit Boy’, really?” She maintained her confused look as he spoke but failed to keep the hint of a smile from entering her expression.

“Well yeah, you threw-up all over those girls, and that bench, and that one flight attendant and...” He cut her off before she could continue.

“I get travel sick, and the ride was bumpy!” he raised his voice in his defence.

“We were in the air for ten minutes, if even that.” She continued.

“We were going to fast!” He tried, losing his confidence.

“It was cruising speed because we were over buildings in downtown Vale.” She managed to stop her laugh from escaping but her amused grin portrayed how she felt all the same. Jaune sighed in defeat.

“Alright, so my stomach may be a little…” Ruby met his gaze with an accusatory stare. “Okay, _very_ sensitive to motion.” He seemed to gain a second wind from nowhere. “But it won’t matter, because one day I’ll be a super famous hunter and girls will be lining up to spend time with me.” Ruby struggled to walk backwards as she laughed at Jaune’s expense, though a few moments later he joined her.

“I guess that mark on your face is just her way of calling dibs then.” Ruby managed to get out in between giggles. Jaune simply smirked and took it in his stride.

“Oh totally, I mean she’s obviously pinning for me. After all, you don’t really know a girl until she nearly kills you for blowing chunks all over her brand-new shoes.” Ruby skin crawled at the mental image he recreated, and a dangerous situation appeared in her head.

“Jaune?” He looked at her, her giggling halting but a small smile still clear on her face, though it seemed almost warning.

“Yeah?” He watched as her eyes took on a glazed look as if imagining something.

“Just, please, don’t try that with my sisters.” He moved to speak but she cut him off by continuing. “This isn’t a protective sister kind of thing; this is a I don’t want to scrap my first friend at Beacon off the cafeteria walls kind of thing.” His mouth hung open mouthing an ‘oh’ as he got her meaning and nodded.

A few more minutes passed as they wandered, talking about their families, memories and their various courses. Eventually Ruby stopped as she beheld a familiar fountain and looked around to find herself in the all too familiar courtyard, though something was off, she couldn’t place it, but there was definitely something different.

“Jaune, where are we going?” She looked back at her new friend who simply shrugged at her.

“I don’t know I was following you.” He said, unaware of her rapid change of mood.

“What?! I was following you!” She sent an accusatory look which he ignored unsure as to why she was so worked up. After he didn’t respond she patted herself down trying to find her phone. “What’s the time?” Jaune responded by rolling back his sleeve and revealing a wristwatch.

“Uh, two thirty. Why?” Her expression sunk into horror as she rapid looked around for any sign of directions, realising she had no idea where she was going. “Ruby? You okay?” He asked carefully, confused.

“Jaune, the Headmaster’s introduction speech was at two fifteen!” Jaunes expression shifted quickly to panic as he too realised their issue. They were late and lost. It was now that Ruby realised what was wrong with the courtyard; it had no people in it.

“Ah… Well shit.” Both took off running to what they hoped was the main theatre, where the speech was being held. Hopefully they could sneak in for the last part.

* * *

“I’ll… keep this brief. You have travelled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your lives to the protection of the people.” The headmaster droned on as Ruby only half paid attention, her mind grinding out a plan for revenge on her sisters whilst she searched for any hint of them from the back of the gathered students.

After an awkward few minute of sneaking into the hall, Jaune and Ruby had gone their separate ways. However, before the blond boy had left, Ruby asked if he knew where first aid was holding their meet and greet so she could find her sisters after the introduction speech finished. Jaune had looked panicked for a moment as he quickly pulled out his phone and rapidly scrolled before eventually placing his hand on his chest and letting out a relieved sigh.

Luckily for Jaune, no such meet and greet was happening and as such he wasn’t already skipping classes, as he too was doing first aid. Unfortunately for Ruby’s sisters, she knew they had lied to her. Ruby tried and failed to keep her annoyance from showing on her face as the headmaster continued.

“But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, and we intend to grant you this knowledge, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. Afterall, it is up to you to take the first step.” There was a brief moment of silence as everyone listening made sure he was finished with his speech before the low rumble of applause overtook the auditorium, the occasional cheer or whistle joining in from the more excited students. Ruby herself took to absentmindedly clapping as she seethed, almost missing when everyone else stopped applauding and waited for the headmaster to begin again.

“Now, with that out of the way, I feel it is appropriate for me to get to the part I know you have all been waiting for, partner and team selection.” He said the final part with emphasis causing the room to be engulfed in a stark, all-consuming silence, even Ruby suddenly began to pay attention. “As I am sure you are all aware, Beacon Academy uses a tried and tested method of training known as the team system. In this system you will be given a partner and then be paired up with another set of partners to form a four-person team, which will have an appointed leader from amongst you. We do this to instil a sense of teamwork and comradery amongst you. Your and your partner’s grades will be combined and averaged out, meaning that your actions no longer only affect you.” There was a slight commotion as he halted his speaking, various students murmuring about being held back by their partners. The headmaster seemed to take no notice and continued on.

“There will be no partner trading, and there will certainly be no team reshuffles, working out issues between you and your partner or teammate is one of the main points of this exercise so excuses relating to such shall hold no weight.” The room was once again devoid of sound, though this time the silence was tense and desperate unlike the quiet awe from before. Ruby couldn’t help but notice the hint of a smirk pull at the edges of the headmaster’s lips as he moved to continue. “I shall now read out the forty pairs and twenty teams who will form today. When your name is called out please come and stand up on the stage beside you partner and team. After all teams are formed you shall be given your dorm number, which you will share with your team. What you do after is up to you, but we highly recommend getting to know your team as tomorrow morning a placement matches will be held to decide your teams ranking amongst your year group, from first to twentieth.” A faint hum could be heard as various students hummed and nodded with the new information.

“Here at Beacon Academy we believe in quality over quantity and so at the end of the first year, teams ranked tenth through twentieth will be dropped and asked to apply for the first year again allowing with the new initiates of that year, some of you are people who have already done so. Do not worry, chances to go up and down the rankings will be abundant throughout the year.” He paused for effect, but the moment people began making noise he continued, effectively silencing them. “So, without further ado, let us begin”.

For the first few minutes the professor called up people Ruby didn’t know, she would applaud with everyone else but never paid much attention to detail as she waited in anticipation for her name to be called. Jaune’s name had been called a few teams ago but her focus had been elsewhere, and she had lost him amongst the other teams. However, her stupor was instead broken by another’s name being called.

“Ilia Amitola and Blake Belladonna.” Ruby’s head snapped to the walkway onto the stage as she beheld her sister sheepishly walk up the steps with the mysterious black clad girl from the day before following closely behind. “Teamed with Miltia Malachite and Melanie Malachite” She caught the twins filing onto the stage from the opposite walkway. She managed to keep her seething in check, but as Ilia’s eyes nervously roamed the crowd, she momentarily locked gazes with Ruby. A sickly-sweet smile spread across Ruby’s face as her eyes burned holes into her older sister who quickly tried to look away and pretend she hadn’t seen her. Vengeance would be hers.

A few more teams were read out and Ruby found herself amongst a rapidly thinning crowd. Normally this would be fine; crowds did not agree with her, but with the people on the stage staring at her and the few people left, she felt judged. She could have sworn that headmaster Ozpin was purposefully slowing down in order to let her squirm under what was currently sixty plus gazes. She forced herself to look at the headmaster, trying not to acknowledge the opinions that were likely be formed of her as she sat surrounded by empty seats. Finally, her turn came.

“Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee” Ruby’s eyes widened as she slowly got up, her body, racked with nerves, moving on its own as she roamed her gaze over the other remaining students. She could hear whispers circulating from amongst the collected students on the stage as she neared and was met with the sight of her partner.

Weiss was around the same height as Ruby, though she was wearing heels, so she was actually slightly smaller, and was a like a moving phantom as she paced onto the stage. Her dress went down to just above her knees, several layers of fabric overlapping near the bottom, with several depictions of snowflakes amongst the fabric in a baby blue along the edges. Atop it was a white bolero jacket with a vibrant red popping out from the few exposed part of its interior. Weiss herself had long, flowing platinum-blonde hair that was tied up neatly in a slightly off-kilter ponytail that trailed down her back with expensive pins holding it in place. Her eyes were of a calm blue that seemed cold as her gaze flicked over to Ruby. Her face was flawless, nary a mark or blemish across even a millimetre of her skin, all bar a single faint, straight scar over her left eye. The scar was new and clean, the flesh around it was pink from being newly remade and replenished. Ruby made a point to ask her later, but the headmaster seemed set on not giving her a moment to think.

“Teamed with Neopolitan and Penny Polendina.” Ruby watched as the two approached the stage, smiling as Neo offered her a small wave and a mischievous grin. The small girl was much the same as when she had last seen her, aside from her tiny stature and the colour scheme that took after her namesake, she fit right in with the other students. Whilst the students varied vastly, there were definite patterns Ruby noticed with how they dressed; some like Weiss, Neo and the twins had dressed to impress, wearing suits, dresses and other expensive clothing, whilst others had gone with an edgier look like Ilia and admittedly herself. The same, however, could not be said about Neo’s partner.

Penny Polendina was, for lack of a better term, odd. She was slightly taller than Ruby herself, likely around two inches taller, and carried herself in a carefree, loose manner as if she didn’t notice all of the people giving her confused looks as she skipped up to the stage. Ruby envied her courage, or perhaps it was cluelessness, as the girl mad it to the steps a huge smile plastered across her face. She had short ginger hair, similar to Nora only it curled neatly at the ends, that ended halfway down her neck and bright, almost electric, green eyes which clearly displayed her excitement. Her cloths were plain, consisting of a mostly beige shoulder blouse, that seemed a little out of date, with a light grey pinafore dress over the top with light green streaks around the hips and legs and a golden trimming along the hem. She also sported a pair of black thigh-highs completing the look of a middle-class child from a sixty-year-old movie.

The ginger girl noticed Ruby looking at her and enthusiastically waved as she walked over and stood beside Ruby, though ‘stood’ was perhaps not the best description as the girl continuously fidgeted and bobbed up and down with an energy Ruby was envious of. The four of them lined up together on the stage allowing the headmaster to continue and finish off with the last two remaining teams, though Ruby paid no attention as she felt a dull ache crept into her mind as the pair slid in next to her.

It had sprung on her rather suddenly and she fought the urge to rub her temples and hiss as a faint ring began to blare in her ears like an electric amp that wasn’t plugged in properly. Slowly the ringing was met by a growling that, whilst sounding distant ruby always knew was but a step away. She faced forward to see Ozpin’s mouth moving but she couldn’t make out anything he said as the rumbling grew louder, angrier, hungrier. Sparring a glance at her shadow she saw the odd flash of white and red eyes blink in and out of existence, a familiar tightening along her arm as the Grimm rose seemed to coil up in suspense.

Whilst the rose had happily attached itself to her mother’s cloak, the moment she made to move it had immediately latched back on to her, puncturing a new hole in her arm and symbiotically clung to her once more. She may have been able to get away with her semblance if she really tried, but she would be lying if she didn’t feel alien without the Grimm plant coiling along her arm. In order to hide it she had it spread along her arm shoulder blade and back, allowing it to make a few more incisions along its way. Though, it now concerned her as it tensed and the she could feel the beginning of thorns forming.

Her breathe became short as her blood started violently pumping through her body and the ringing intensified. She could hear them; the Grimm. They wanted out, something was there, something they didn’t like, something they needed to kill. It was dangerous, it had to be stopped; it would kill them if they weren’t careful. Squawks, growls, roars and more flooded her hearing, unintelligible, but she knew what they said.

_Rip. Tear…_

The familiar sounds filled her mind as her balance shifted unexpectedly and she fought to remain upright and not draw attention to herself.

_Rend. Flay…_

She had to get out.

_Rip! Tear! Rend! Flay!..._

She had to leave now!

**_Feast!_ **


	19. Chapter 19

Weiss Schnee was not having, what she would consider, a good day. She had awoken that morning in high spirits, ready to attend Beacon Academy and finally begin making a name for herself. Of course, her family name was already widely known throughout the world; being Atlesian royalty generally had that effect, but this wasn’t what she wanted. A Schnee was excellent at everything they put their mind to, her older sister, Winter, was a perfect example of this. The older Schnee was intelligent, graceful, gorgeous and was more than a match for most opponents in combat. It was something that Weiss found herself often admiring her sister for, but secretly she was also jealous.

Growing up Weiss had always been compared to Winter. Her instructors would recount Winter’s countless records and achievements whilst pointing out how poor Weiss’ attempt was by comparison. Weiss had gained full control over her semblance by the age of eleven, an admirable feat for most people, with the average age being around thirteen, but Winter had done so at ten. Weiss was a straight A student, but Winter had rarely dropped a single mark in any of her exams. Weiss was a fencing champion in her age group, but Winter had been the one to teach her and to this day she had yet to take a single round from her older sister.

Beacon had been a way for her to leave that behind and finally make her first name mean just as much as her last. However, it seemed that fate intended to be cruel to her on this occasion. The airship journey had been nauseating; with masses of other students crowding around her, all vying for the chance to be her ‘friend’ and ‘get to know her’. She had inwardly scoffed; not a single one had been even remotely honest, reminding her of her father’s court of self-entitled, conniving sycophants; all licking her boots just so they could step on her later down the line. Of course, she had hidden her feelings; she had done what she always did, smiled, nodded and politely ignored them.

Unfortunately, the airship journey had only been the beginning of her problems. The eager groupies had followed her for minutes after landing, all content with arguing with each other over who would lead her to the headmaster’s speech and who would sit beside her during it. She could have dealt with this, after all she was used to it; growing up it had been hard to actually acquire friends that saw her for her, rather than ‘The Schnee Princess’, and harder still to find said friends her father would actually allow her to remain in contact with. However, it was what came next that truly threatened to push her over the edge.

Yang Xiao Long Branwen was someone she had the unfortunate displeasure of knowing rather closely. The buxom, blonde brawler was, after all, royalty in her own right and soon to be related to Weiss through the marriage of Winter and Qrow. It was no secret that they hated each other, but both families seemed to constantly find excuses for them to interact, to the chagrin of them both. The students around Weiss had quickly tried to acquaint themselves with Yang as well, only to be shrugged off and told to leave.

At first none of the hopefuls had moved; simply confused by the blunt order from the blonde. Some had moved to protest before being silenced as Yang’s eyes had begun glowing red and the edges of her hair had caught fire. The message had been clear, and the students had quickly filed away, unwilling to risk their lives with the volatile royal. In a way Weiss was a little jealous that Yang could afford to show her emotion openly, but it was also something she hated about her. The blonde may have been royalty, but she was far from refined and in some cases was outright repulsive. The two simply glared at each other for a long moment before Yang broke the silence.

“So, the failure is attending Beacon. I’ve gotta say, I’m disappointed.” Yang looked Weiss up and down before grinning and leaning against the fountain as Weiss continued to stare at her. Yang gestured to her left eye, pointing at something Weiss knew stuck out on her face. “I hear daddy’s combat test was almost too much for his little princess.” A crack appeared in Weiss’ mask as a phantom pain whispered across her left eye. However, Weiss, for once, had her own information and allowed a smirk of her own form on her features.

“A pleasure as always Yang.” The blonde adopted a cocky leer. “You always come off as this strong, warrior-like woman, who isn’t afraid of anyone or anything. So, imagine my surprise when I hear that some random girl in a local bar knocked seven bells out of you just the other night.” Yang’s expression dropped and she moved to retort only for Weiss to continue. “Of course, it would be scandalous for one such as yourself to not only be in such an establishment but to then be beaten so thoroughly that the media were barred from reporting on it.” Weiss couldn’t help but let a grin slide its way onto her face as she noticed the blonde’s fists curl up. “Perhaps the ‘Phoenix of the Branwen family’ isn’t so unstoppable after all.” Yang visibly flinched, clearly something triggering a memory, but the weakness lasted only a second before her eyes flashed dangerously. She stepped forward, roughly grabbing Weiss’ blouse and pulling her close enough for Weiss to feel the scorching aura that Yang emitted.

“Listen here, you frigid bitch,” Her voice was barely more than a whisper but Weiss’ eyes widened at the fury beneath the surface. “You’re in _my_ kingdom now, that _thing_ was no random girl, it was a monster in human flesh and if you’re so insistent in my apparent weakness, how about I show just why your sister is marrying into the Branwens.” Weiss made to speak as Yang practically snarled at her, but the heat was robbing her of her voice and only an unintelligible croak escaped the white princess. For a moment Yang simply held Weiss in her grip, daring her to retaliate in some way, before eventually releasing her causing the Atlesian princess to unceremoniously stumble before eventually regaining what was left of her composure.

Weiss was under no illusion they stood on the same level in combat. Perhaps if Yang were to fight honestly and stick to traditional fighting methods, she stood a chance, but the moment the blonde used her Grimm, Weiss couldn’t possibly hope to win. It was just another thing she hated about Yang; even if Weiss laboured day and night, more so than she already did, she could never overcome the power that was Yang’s birth right.

Yang made to turn away, visibly irked but seemingly happy with her cowing of the other princess. She made it a few paces before stopping, as if remembering something. Halting her steps, she called out over her shoulder.

“Don’t forget your part in this deal.” Yang didn’t give Weiss the opportunity to reply, simply walking away the moment after she spoke. Weiss waited for the brawler to disappear around the corner before scoffing to herself. Of course, she wouldn’t forget, after all, a Schnee never forgot.

With her calm facade back in place and her mood thoroughly soured, the Atlesian princess walked towards the hall. Hopefully, her team would, at least, be tolerable.

* * *

Hearing her name called out had sent a strange set of conflicting emotions surging through her. On one hand, she was excited and determined; she was officially part of a team and she was getting closer to her goal, finally making her own way in life. She would excel, she would thrive, standing tall above any who doubted her, and she would do so on the bodies of the conquered if she had to. However, on the other, much larger, hand, she was baffled, surprised and, if she was being honest, irked to no end.

Her team consisted of three odd characters, all of which she found hard to read. The ginger girl seemed far too chipper and childish considering she was in a school that taught warriors skills with which to attack, maim and even kill others at times. Her clothes were rather bland when compared to others in the hall, most people either dressed smartly or to make a statement about themselves, with very few in everyday clothes with no noticeable colour. Weiss was half inclined to believe the girl was hiding something sinister underneath all of the energy; the girl acted oblivious to the social happenings around her all whilst concocting plans to end out with her standing above all those around her. Perhaps the princess was over thinking things, but there was certainly something amiss with that one. Polendina was a last name she was familiar with, though she had no dealings with the Professor, she at least knew of his famed intelligence, perhaps his daughter shared that quality. That would be useful.

The ginger’s partner was an entirely different story. The girl was brightly coloured and was definitely unique, being easy to pick out from the crowd despite standing at little over five feet tall. At first glance, she seemed rather simple, once one could push past her appearance, but Weiss knew better. She assumed that Penny was hiding something, but she _knew_ Neopolitan was not what she seemed. The girl had waved and smiled, but she hadn’t opened her mouth to speak even once, but this wasn’t what unnerved Weiss. No, it was the girl’s eyes that spoke volumes to the princess. There was a light-hearted joy glazing over the top, nothing more than a thin glamour to fool the unsuspecting, but Weiss could see something more. There, under the surface of the small girl’s façade, was something she was familiar with, very familiar, though she could not quite place what it was in the few seconds she had looked. Perhaps she would find out in the near future.

However, it was the third person that perplexed her the most. Ruby Rose, her partner for the next four years and she was… well that was the problem, she didn’t know what to make of the girl. Had Weiss not been in heels, Ruby would likely stand an inch taller than herself and was definitely very attractive. Weiss herself never cared about romance and the such; the idea was pointless, her father would likely pick a husband in a few years and she would have little to no say in the matter, but, if the wide eyes of the various teenagers around her were anything to go by, she could comfortably describe the girl as beautiful.

Ruby had smiled, coming across as slightly nervous as her gaze flickered around the room as she walked up to the stage, but what confused Weiss the most was how the girl kept changing. Ruby had been rather skittish at first, before seemingly finding her calm and seamlessly fitting in beside her on stage, but finally she had changed again.

The feeling had crept up on Weiss, dragging its way up her back like frozen knives teasing her flesh with the promise of pain but never quite delivering. The whisper of a cruel, unforgiving agony worming its way into her mind as the girl beside her began trembling as if fighting some internal turmoil. Weiss glanced around, noticing some of the other students had begun shivering or even sweat slightly as they too became enveloped in the eerie feeling.

Certain people were reacting differently than others and the Atlesian princess heard as a small commotion broke out as it seemed some people near the back tried to push their way to the front but found it hard to navigate the sea of carefully aligned students. Most notably her teammates were reacting the oddest. Penny was frantically looking around, seemingly trying to find something but also trying to remain in place. Neopolitan wasn’t reacting at all simply wearing a loose smile and facing forward like they were supposed to. Finally, there was Ruby, who seemed to be on the verge of some sort of mental breakdown. It was this thought that urged Weiss to carefully place a hand on her partner’s shoulder; she couldn’t very well let her partner embarrass herself, and by extension Weiss, on the first day.

“Hey, are you okay?” The question seemed simple enough, no malice showed in her voice, no irritation, perhaps a little curiosity and yet the girl violently flinched at the sudden sound and faint touch. She received no further reply save for Ruby to pointedly avoid looking at her and turn away to the best of her ability, though the movement seemed strained.

Weiss tried to hide her annoyed expression at being ignored, allowing her face to settle into neutrality, though she failed to completely remove the hard edge in her eyes. Slowly she applied pressure to Ruby’s shoulder, attempting to goad her into looking at her. When she was met with resistance and further silence, she couldn’t help her eye from twitching, a drip of anger showing through.

_I am trying to show concern for your wellbeing and yet you have the audacity to ignore me?_

A red haze took over her actions, suddenly yanking on the girl’s shoulder and forcing her to turn around and face her. Weiss let a smirk cross her face as Ruby stumbled under the sudden force, her balance already weakened from her internal struggle, before eventually catching herself and began looking up. Weiss’ expression and words died on her lips.

Crimson pools of molten hate bore into her, sizing her up like prey. Weiss felt a tremble set in as she began to step back, and Ruby tilted her head like a confused animal, leaning towards Weiss. The Atlesian princess swallowed thickly as faint growls, barely more than whispers, seemed to surround her and red, ravenous eyes opened and stared at her from various shadowed corners of the hall. Weiss tried and failed to tear her gaze away from Ruby as the girl reached out towards her, the girl’s sleeve moving as if something underneath it was thrashing around.

Weiss could feel a warm bead of sweat fall past her brow, fear gripping her in its entirety as she was stared down for the second time that day. She knew those eyes, just an hour ago she had been similarly cowed by the eyes of a Grimm, but this was different. Yang’s eyes had burned with fury and Weiss had been unable to speak from the scorching heat she had emitted threatening to rob her of her remaining air, but Ruby’s eyes were different. Weiss’ body commanded her to remain still and let the other girl do as she wished, ignoring any of her fleeting and panicked thoughts. She felt as if an endless black abyss were about to swallow her whole, an ocean of bone and shadow forced its way into her mind and drowned any other thoughts that dared speak against the midnight tide. All the while, a cacophony of starved beasts robbed her of her hearing forcing her attention solely on the girl before her.

Until it stopped.

A sudden silence permeated through the princess’ mind and she heard as she gasped for the air that she had been robbing herself of. Ruby blinked, her eyes slowly slipping back into their usual calm, dark red hue, as she too seemed out slightly out of breath. Weiss just now noticed a new figure had pushed her way over to them, a taller girl with various patches of her skin looking as if they were scales. Said girl was currently rubbing comforting circles on Ruby’s back as she trembled and huffed. Eventually, the newcomer spoke up.

“Ruby, what happened?”

* * *

Ruby’s breathe was ragged as she struggled to remain standing. Luckily, the speech from the headmaster had ended at some point in the minutes she had been wrestling with her Grimm, so she was only surrounded by a few people, with most of the other students out of her immediate vicinity. They had definitely felt the effects of her Grimm, but most seemed to have dismissed it after it passed a minute or so later. Small mercies, she supposed.

Honestly, she wasn’t sure if she had fully managed to supress them; if she looked too long at people, she could feel a familiar haze creep into the edges of her vision and the dull din of the demonic menagerie would get ever so slightly hungrier. She paled at the thought of what she was about to do to Weiss before Ilia managed to give her the nudge she needed to snap out of it. The Grimm had been angry, ready to lash out at whatever it was that had riled it up, but them Weiss had reached out…

Ruby had been so busy restraining her shadow, holding all of the beasts within their endless black cage, that she hadn’t noticed that her own body had started to move on its own. It had been the first time her Grimm had taken over and she remained conscious, it was disconcerting and, if the safety of nearly a hundred people hadn’t been on the line, she found herself wishing she had blacked out for it. Being trapped in her own mind, with no ability to do anything but watch, as she stalked towards a panicking Weiss, and try her best to hold onto the last few threads of her control, she hated it.

She knew roughly how to use her powers; the principal was simple really, but she couldn’t ever go as far as she wanted, the moment she leant too hard into her power it wanted out in its entirety. The most she had managed to achieve without losing control had amounted to ordering already created Grimm, like Nora’s collar, though she could only make it do certain things as if something was limiting her authority. She had managed to make a few smaller Grimm too, but she had been unable to quell the beasts’ inherent bloodlust that all young Grimm possessed. She could order them into being passive when she was around, but if she ever got too far away, they would revert to its instincts. Bart had explained to her that Grimm grew exponentially more intelligent the older they got, but when they were young their memories likely could only last a few hours.

However, she didn’t know what had set her off. Taking a final few heavy breathes she managed to right herself and look around. Her new team stood before her, all in various states of different reactions, and her sisters’ along with their new teammate, Blake, stood to her left all looking worried with the exception of said teammate, who looked confused at what was happening. Neo mirrored Blake’s expression, simply looking unsure of what she was witnessing, though a small, encouraging smile spread across her features.

Weiss looked, understandably, rather horrified at whatever had transpired just a few moments ago. Ruby knew the princess wasn’t stupid and likely knew what a Grimm was, though she held out hope that she couldn’t connect the dots between this incident and them. The hope was fleeting, at best, as she saw an accusatory glare appear in the Atlesian’s eyes whilst she recomposed herself. This would likely be a long afternoon, but she dared tear her gaze away to look at the final gathered member, and she jumped at finding just how close they were.

Penny Polendina was the only person amongst the small group that she didn’t know to at least some extent. She also didn’t really know Weiss, but she had seen plenty of news broadcasts with the girl either featured or headlining on them, so at least she knew something. Penny though, was an enigma. Said girl was currently only a few inches away from her, ignoring any potential concept of personal space that Ruby may interpose. Her face was uncomfortably close, seemingly inspecting every nook and cranny of Ruby’s form, like an excited puppy sniffing around a new person. Eventually she adopted a giddy smile and her eyes lit up with childish glee as she met Ruby’s gaze.

“You’re like me!” She grabbed the smaller girl’s shoulders, seemingly unaware of the otherwise sombre mood, and Ruby could feel the Grimm rose tense up at the girl’s touch. Her head began to ache again as the familiar racket of Grimm let out warning growls when Penny drew closer still, now only a few centimetres between their noses. “You’re different too! You’ve got a Gri…” The ginger girl seemed to remember what she was about to do and quickly slapped her hands over her own mouth to prevent a further slip. Eventually, when she was comfortable that she had stopped herself, she giggled and continued. “Oops! Hehe. Oh, this is sensational!”

Penny suddenly leant forward, wrapping her arms around Ruby’s torso and lifted her up in a bone crushing embrace. The others simply watched in silent awe as the ginger girl held a surprised Ruby aloft as if she weighed nothing. Penny looked like she would struggle to lift her own weight, with a thin frame that seemed to lack any of the lithe muscle most of them had, so it was with great curiosity that they spectated Penny twirling Ruby around like a doll. Eventually, Ruby left out a wheeze, indicating she was running out of air from the overly powerful hug, her struggling was futile, Penny’s grasp had been like iron and it seemed that the ginger hadn’t even noticed Ruby’s escape attempts. Luckily, her pained noise seemed to finally register with her new teammate, and she was promptly put down.

“Oh, I’m so sorry! I-I forget my own strength sometimes.” Penny gazed pointedly at the ground as she apologised her head bowed and shoulders locked in practiced submission. “I-it won’t happen again. I Promise.” Ruby looked up at the others, receiving confused shrugs from all of them bar Weiss, who was now recovered and glaring holes into her, though she noticed the princess’ calm, calculative eyes flicker over to Penny for a moment and narrow before returning to Ruby. Deciding to ignore the low growl that built up in her shadow, she looked back to Penny who was still bowed, waiting for a response.

“Uhh… it’s fine Penny, really, you just caught me off guard is all.” Ruby placed a comforting hand on the ginger girl’s shoulder, who slowly stood back at her regular height. The taller girl seemed confused at ruby’s response, her head tilting to the side in puppy-like fashion.

“Are you sure?” Penny asked, seemingly sceptical of Ruby’s approach. Ruby simply nodded.

“Of course.” Ruby gave her an encouraging smile, which, after a moment lead to Penny beaming happily and moving in to hug her again. Ruby nimbly stepped out of reach before patting the girl on the shoulder again. “But, perhaps give my spinal column a few minutes to recover.” She smiled again, and, though she looked disappointed, Penny eventually gave her own half-smile in response. Ruby was still struggling to get a grasp of what Penny had said, or at least had insinuated, when Weiss finally decided she had enough of being left in the dark.

The Atlesian princess managed to conjure an inkling of her father’s authority as she paced forward, her gaze never dropping from Ruby whilst she approached. Her body seemed to reject her idea, the deepest parts of her acting as if it had been traumatised into fear, but she managed to push down the mounting dread and kept her fragile, commanding façade up. As she reached Ruby, she made to goad Penny out of her way, only to find she couldn’t move the girl even an inch. It wasn’t until the ginger realised that Weiss was trying to push past her that she finally moved aside with a friendly smile plastered across her face, though Weiss noticed she was seemingly more cautious around the princess. Weiss was too busy maintaining appearances to bother to broach as to why this was and instead locked gazes with Ruby as if some angry spirit had overcome her.

“Who are you?” Her tone was cold and accusatory, matched only by her glare. Ruby managed to remain calm but was struggling to come up with a justified response, leaving her in an awkward state of just staring Weiss down for several moments. Eventually she decided it was best to beat around the bush a little and buy herself or her sisters time to answer the question. Though as she looked around her sisters seemed more stumped than she was, mixed with a hint of controlled anger mostly aimed towards the princess.

“Well, Headmaster Ozpin already said my name, I’m Ruby, Ruby Rose.” Ruby tried not to strain her voice as she laid out the obvious and stretched out a hand for the princess to shake. Weiss’ eyes simply narrowed as she looked down at the offered limb before promptly ignoring it.

“Ok then, let me rephrase that; _What_ are you?” The question drew rather confused looks from Blake who, whilst she had remained silent the whole time as a bystander, seemed to have some barely tempered hostility towards the white clad royal. Ilia and the twins adopted a darker expression, stepping forward to place themselves between their sister and Weiss. Ilia took an additional step forward her skin slowly shifting towards a bright warning red as she moved.

“I think it’s best if you leave it alone prin…” Ilia’s words fell on deaf ears as Weiss ignored her and continued to glare at Ruby.

“How did you get that?” Weiss moved to step forward again, attempting to shove Ilia aside. When the chameleon faunas didn’t move, she spared a venomous glance at the obstacle in her path. “I don’t recall addressing you.” A challenging sheen flashed across Ilia’s eyes and her mouth tensed as if she was suppressing a growl. Weiss simply scoffed. “Now, move aside.” The princess’ scowl was withering, and Ilia made to challenge further, only to be interrupted by a familiar voice.

“Ilia, it’s okay.” The faunas turned around to see Ruby giving her a small, reassuring smile and her hand slowly applying pressure to her shoulder, prompting her to move aside for the princess. “I’ll be fine.” Gradually, Ilia loosened her shoulders and nodded moving to stand just off to the side of the pair. Weiss simply kissed her teeth as the taller girl stepped away from her target, a small amount of disgust seeped into her gaze as she beheld the now unobstructed girl.

“Well?” Weiss’ back straightened in an attempt to look down on the girl, using her heels to add to her otherwise more diminutive stature. Ruby seemed to handle the question well, her face was in a state of cool neutrality even as the older girl fumed, though, admittedly, her ailing head may have been a key factor in doing so.

“I don’t know.” The bluntness with which Ruby spoke took Weiss aback for a moment before she managed to right herself and the vitriol returned to her features and voice alike.

“Excuse me?” Weiss’ response was quiet and seething, a near silent warning of her fraying patience. Ruby’s expression never changed.

“I said, I don’t know.” Weiss simply narrowed her eyes further, her teeth gritting as her fury intensified. A voice deep within the recesses of her mind screamed at her to kill the woman before her, or at least get someone who could to do so, Yang perhaps. Yes, that might work; the princess’ may despise each other but Yang was likely to not take kindly to finding a stray with a Grimm.

“Do you expect me to believe that? That some insignificant street rat just _happened_ across something so closely guarded by the Branwens. Not only did she find it, but she also _miraculously_ survived it.” Ruby flinched, causing the corners of Weiss’ mouth to slowly trail upwards; she’d struck a nerve and the voice in her head egged her on to do so again, but she waited for a response first.

Ruby stepped clumsily backwards, colliding with Melanie and falling as she did so. The twin caught her as she stumbled, whispering gentle support into her sister’s ear whilst helping her right herself. Melanie’s expression dropped as she beheld Ruby’s face. Scathing, starving red eyes returned her gaze, though they were surrounded in puffy pink flesh as if the girl had been crying. Melanie’s hand flinched away as something undulated under it, the fabric of Ruby’s jacket violently shifting as the rose beneath became restless. Suddenly, Ruby leant forward so her cheek was only a few millimetres from Melanie’s, her voice ragged and strained.

“I-I h… Have to go.” With her words said, Ruby rushed out the main hall door, drawing the stares of several students as she barged past them and out towards the forest on the west side of Beacon. Melanie was slightly dumbfounded and for several moments didn’t respond. Eventually, she turned to the others and was surprised by what she saw.

Ilia was on the balls of her feet trying to decide as to whether or not she should chase after her younger sister or instead cave in the princess’ skull. Miltia was in much the same state of shock as she was and looked towards her twin for a decision. Penny was the first to act, her eyes had grown wide and almost scared, before she took off after her raven-haired teammate. It was the ginger girl running to the aid of her sister that spurred the white twin back into motion.

“Ilia, go with her.” Though hesitant, Ilia nodded and began to move towards the exit. Only to be stopped by a mocking tone.

“Hah, to think, she was sent running with nothing but fact and light prodding. I wonder how she will survive when a Yang hears of this.” Blake, who had simply watched the ordeal, could hear an audible crack as some invisible line had been crossed. The murderous glares the princess received seemed to clear Weiss’ head, as, for a moment, she seemed to regret what she said. Miltia was the one to speak up.

“Ilia, go to Ruby.” Her tone was cold and distant as if she no longer associated what she was going to do with consequence.

“But, she just…” Ilia was cut off by Melanie’s equally glacial voice.

“We’ll handle it. Now go.” Slowly Ilia nodded and sprinted to catch up with her fleeing sister. When Ilia had left something seemed to possess the Atlesian once more as her confidence came back, though not as strong as before.

“Handle it? I am royalty, what are you going to do to me?” The twins simply cracked their knuckles in unison and taking slow calculative steps forward.

“Oh, your highness, you have no idea.” Miltia practically sang the words before turning to her twin. “Mel, where are we?” The question, whilst innocent, was simply a thin veil to mask her intent. Melanie grinned.

“Beacon Academy for Huntsmen and Huntresses.” The reply was short and concise, lacking the playful hint of her twin.

“And what is the primary skill we acquire at this academy?” They were only a few steps from the princess who had been slowly backing herself into a corner.

“We learn to fight to the best of our ability.” Weiss’ back hit the wall.

“So, we shouldn’t turn down the chance at some _friendly sparring,_ now should we?” Blake and Neo stepped away from the trio, ponder whether or not they should intervene, only to glimpse the livid hunger in the twins’ eyes and think twice.

“Of course, not Mil.”

* * *

Ruby had long forgotten how long she had been running, forgoing perception just so she could get as far away as possible. Her head was pounding as thousands of wicked claws raked against the edges of her shadow, screaming for release. She could feel as her control slipped further and further away like water through her fingers. Faintly, she was aware of two people chasing after her, normally she could outrun almost anyone, but her concentration was solely focused on keeping her Grimm in, and she couldn’t spare a thought to activate her semblance and gain more distance.

It had been sudden, the cacophony of Grimm had returned in force, her previous restraint had been demolished as Weiss approached. Something had been off with the princess. At first, she had seemed nice enough, approachable, if a little standoffish, but suddenly she had changed. The Grimm had sensed it first, snarling from within the recesses of her mind, but eventually she had noticed it too. Weiss’ aura had changed, she originally gave off a cool, calm and confident aura, demanding respect but not forcing obedience, but then it had changed. I had twisted, the cool feeling replaced with that of cold sharp ice, tainted with something akin to primal hatred.

It had been this taint that the Grimm had been lashing out towards. The princess had gotten too close and it had taken most of her willpower to not tremble under the unseen pressure the endless black tide had placed on their mental cage. At first she felt as if she could hold it, the Atlesian had a right to know, especially since she likely would know soon anyway, but people like Blake, Neo and whoever else was paying enough attention in the hall didn’t and she had tried to stall for time. However, the princess had trod on an old wound.

The memories from Apep had never really faded, for any of them. Ilia had been the strongest, more often than not comforting the others when they had their episodes, but even she would crumble if the wrong memory triggered. The phrase ‘survived it’ had set her off. The walls of the hall had begun to close in, looming over her and engulfing the people around her in the darkness of a familiar cell with the only light streaking in through a crack at the bottom of the door. That is until steel capped shoes blotted it out. Hitting Melanie had snapped her out, but her sudden loss in focus had almost allowed the beasts out. She had tried to pull them back, but her mind was too panicked to hold for long; her own negativity fuelling their numbers and strength like gasoline to flames. So, she had run.

She failed to notice a protruding tree root as she sprinted, her foot catching on it and sending her tumbling into a clearing. Ruby hissed as a faint sting spread across her grazed legs and head, her focused had loosened again, this time Grimm were ready, her shadow spilling over the nearby plants like a plague. She watched as alabaster bones tore free of their umbral cell, shadowy limbs pulling the creatures out of the black depths. She grasped at her head as the guttural chanting returned anew, only vaguely aware of the two girls who had followed her.

* * *

Penny was positively thrumming with energy as she chased after her new teammate, hundreds of emotions flying through her system at incalculable speeds. She was elated at having found someone like her at Beacon, papa had said someone there would be like her, but she had slowly begun to lose hope as she failed to find anyone. Until suddenly, she appeared. It had been beautiful, the realisation that she wasn’t alone, whilst she knew that the Branwens had Grimm too she was told she had to avoid them as much as possible, until papa said it was safe. But Ruby, Ruby was different, like her.

However, she had also been confused; there had been something else in the room with them, like them, but different. It had been caged, controlled and muted, but its scent had polluted the air around them, and, try as she might, she couldn’t find where or who it came from.

As of this moment however, she was scared. Ruby wasn’t in control like she was, she could feel it, Ruby was more Grimm than human, but she couldn’t hold back her own strength, it rebelled against her, begging for escape. Luckily Ruby had managed to hold it in until now, bringing the risk of casualty down by approximately eighty three percent, with Ilia being the most at risk as the pair chased Ruby into the clearing. It was in this clearing that Penny truly found out what Ruby’s Grimm could do.

The ground was encroached by an endless umbral abyss as twisted monsters pulled themselves from their slumber. Dozens of lupine beasts came first, followed by bulkier ursine and by the second they were joined by more and more complex creatures ranging from huge scorpions to winged lion-like creatures with fire occasionally licking the edges of their mouths. Ruby herself was pressed up against an old oak tree, her breath slowly steadying from its rapid, exhausted wheezing into the calm rhythm of a waking predator.

Penny’s daze was interrupted by a flash of steel as Ilia impaled one of the lupine creatures, who had lunged at the ginger from behind, a grunt accompanying the action as she yanked the blade of her knife free from the beast and it slowly faded back into the shadow like ink to a black canvas.

“Don’t zone out, or we’re both dead.” Ilia shouted above the primal din of the Grimm a dark blue shade taking over her skin, her panic clear as she sought a way out. After a moment of Penny internally questioning Ilia’s sudden pallet swap, she nodded and lowed her stance. She hadn’t brought her weapons with her, luckily that was hardly an issue; with no one watching she didn’t have to hide her mark. She couldn’t really control it, or at least not how she would like. She was capable of turning it on and off, but that was about it and a part of her worried that she may go overboard. Ilia was her main concern; one wrong move and she could splatter the poor girl across a tree.

“I don’t want to hurt you; do you think you could sneak around and get to Ruby and then I can handle the Grimm?” The girls pressed their backs together and slowly rotated reducing the chance of getting jumped by the feral monsters that amassed and encircled them. Ilia glanced over her shoulder like the girl was insane.

“Uhm… sure, but you sure can you actually take all of em’?” Penny simply gave a winning smile and nodded. “Alright then. I’ll run back the way we came and along the outskirts of the clearing, and when I get a chance ill drop next to Ruby.” Penny nodded again as a pair of bears grew brave enough to approach.

Within a second Ilia seemingly vanished into thin air, leaving Penny as the sole target of the oncoming hoard, who, with their prey suddenly halved in number, surged forward. Penny simply grinned like a madwoman as the first bear reached her, bringing down its hulking mass in a powerful overhead swipe, striking the ginger’s shoulder with enough force to shatter bone. A sickening crunch echoed through the forest.

The girl simply smiled at the beast as it backed away, suddenly cautious of its target, limping as one of its forepaws hung uselessly at its side, Penny’s shoulder unmoved. The ursine looked down at the ginger, perplexed by what had occurred, only for her to let out a low huff, her eyes shifting from their electric green hue to a blood red that the beast itself possessed.

“That wasn’t very nice.” Depictions of partially melted chains could be seen snaking their way across Penny’s exposed flesh as she stepped towards the cowering bear. It could feel it, the overwhelming pressure of her Grimm allowed to burst free of its confines. The other Grimm grew wary, still looking for openings, but less willing to charge her. The most important thing, however, was that Ruby stood, studying her, a strange, alien curiosity entering her gaze.

_“A real one_.” The voice was different than Ruby’s usual tone, darker, more sinister. Ruby’s body gestured for the Grimm horde to stand down, flicking her hand nonchalantly. “ _It is nice to meet one such as yourself here after such a long time of isolation. However, I feel I should warn you to leave this one alone.”_ A faint growl emitted from the gathered beasts, almost a sign of agreement had they been more able to express it. Penny simply looked at Ruby confused, slowing her approach but not stopping it.

“I need to calm her down before someone gets hurt. I don’t know who you are, but surely you must understand.” A heavy sigh escaped ‘Ruby’s’ lips as the legion of monsters readied themselves once more.

_“I am afraid I can’t let you do that. The young mistress is having issues with her powers at the moment; if she does not work it off the menagerie of younglings you see here will be the least of your problems.”_ Penny tensed as the beasts circled her again, this time more coordinated. _“A pretender has reared its detestable head amongst you and the young mistress is not accustomed to her own strength yet.”_ Slowly, black vines coalesced atop the void beneath, gathering at the feat of ‘Ruby’.

Suddenly, one of the massive scorpions lunged forward, only to have its stinger bounce harmlessly off of Penny’s raised hand. The ginger reacted quickly, as the scorpion recovered from its overextension, simply balling her fist and striking its head. A thunderous boom blasted into the tense air as the scorpion’s armour splintered into a million pieces, black ichor spraying across the scenery as the arachnid was obliterated beneath Penny’s raw strength. The girl looked back at ‘Ruby’, a sorry expression on her face.

“I’m sorry, but I have to stop you; the risk is too great.” Another defeated sigh came from the possessed girl. Before the vines coiled defensively around her, thorns sprouting like daggers along their length.

_“Then I will defend the mistress.”_ The serrated, umbral tendrils shot forward in unison with the horde. _“As I always have.”_


	20. Chapter 20

Truthfully, it had never expected to be able to suppress the kin for long; they were strong, far stronger than it had expected the young mistress to find here. It should have been impossible for one such as this to exist within the city walls, and yet, here she stood, surgically retracting her arm from the now melting corpse of a youngling. Though it hadn't been blessed with a long life before the young mistress, it could not recall many other kin holding even a shred of the raw strength of the ginger girl before it.

That wasn't the only thing that was off-putting about the girl, who now slowly tore her way through the small pack of wolf younglings who barred her path. She was different. Similar, but different. It could sense the colourful spark at the girl's core, pulsing with life, energy and emotion, that all humans possessed, but it was different, muted, dulled, perhaps even restrained in some way. Not all humans had equal sparks; some were brighter, possessing more colours and energy than others, but none had been this distinctly… weak. Truly, it was a monster that stood before it, one it could not hope to combat.

However, it could not afford to falter here either; the young mistress still had much growing to do before she could utilise her power, and should the process be interrupted a far worse fate would befall the academy than a simple gaggle of younglings. This would be the first of many times the mistress would grow, her strength truly setting in at the end of the human adolescent years. It was unfortunate that the first would come at such an inopportune time as this and with such a formidable foe to intervene under an illusory pretence of helping the young mistress.

A pretender had caused the mistress' instincts to go out of control, her power reacting in far greater droves than she had yet learned to cope with; they had used its fowl, stolen imitation of power to set unease in her mind. It may not have affected her much, but it had riled up her Grimm parts, only to be further driven when the vile creature had wormed its way into those around the young mistress.

Perhaps this would prove beneficial in the long run, it had caught the imposter and was now aware of what type of enemy it would have to defend the mistress from. The young mistress herself would also likely take another step in controlling her strength from this outburst. Though, knowing this particular type of foe did not make them much easier to combat; their true strength lying in those around them and their ambiguity. After all, it was far easier to follow a blood trail than a series of tainted minds and misguided actions.

It shook itself; such thoughts were not the priority now, no, that honour belonged to the kin who had just now finished with the second scorpion which had attempted to beset her. The younglings were not particularly impressive, simply being the excess power that the mistress was failing to contain at the moment whilst her reserves learned to cope with its new depth, but for a single opponent to brush them aside so easily and not even showing any hint of effort, was intimidating.

It could feel the mistress' blood slowly return to its normal pressure through its symbiotic vines, _good._ With the younglings becoming less frequent, the danger of the wrong people noticing the mistress drastically plummeted, but it would not taper off entirely for a long while yet. It would, however, make holding off the kin far harder; the younglings may have been weak, but every swing intended for one of them was one less it would have to block or dodge itself. The kin should placate once the mistress had calmed herself, no doubt the kin's own temperament was being affected by the mistress' outburst.

A small flicker of colour did not escape its notice, as a human spark flittered between trees around the outskirts of the clearing. The mistress' adopted sibling was attempting to sneak up on them, likely to try and subdue them, afraid of the destruction the mistress could cause. If only she knew that she was hindering their chances. The girl was formidable for a human, and certainly even more so against humans themselves. Her ability allowing her to hide herself from sight, but it could not hide her emotion, and so she never disappeared truly from the detection of a Grimm. Though she herself could not likely harm it or the mistress, any distraction, from the already seemingly insurmountable kin before it, was of great danger.

Carefully, it pulled the mistress' body into a ready stance, all the while the thicket of vine and thorn grew around them. It could sense the Faunas girl back off slightly as it sent a few tendrils to watch its back and protect its blind spots. The mistress' body was in the peak physical condition of a human, trained endlessly over the course of her life, but it was no fool. It had watched the kin break bear younglings with her bare hands, any direct hit would likely spell the end for it. Without the mistress lending it her strength, even its vines would struggle to regenerate quickly enough after taking a hit.

The kin seemed to finally grow tired with the younglings that piled up before her; an unamused frown flashing across her face before being replaced by a dull blank stare. Eventually, even her disappointment faded, the kin's spark dimming as she approached. This is where the struggle really began.

* * *

The young Grimm were dwindling… _distractions minimizing_.

Her temporary teammate was in position… _flanking angle achieved._

Her limbs seemed to be coping with additional strain… _strength output at 45% and holding._

She watched as her opponent covered herself and her immediate surroundings in Grimm, white, bone-like thorns sprouting from the black tendrils.

_Current force output compared to estimated tensile strength of substance… 97% success rate. Room for potential error, adjusting… strength output at 47% percent._

The sound of whining metal interrupted the dull cacophony of the remaining Grimm. She curled her fists to test the limits of her current output. The sound stopped after a moment.

_Pressure stabilised… combat ready._

A faint, guttural growl emanated from the back of her mind, a complaint and a warning. The image of white-hot chains pinning her to the floor flashed before her, a moment of burning agony inside an inescapable cage and the sound of whimpering pups as they were dragged away just out of sight. The vision ended and for a moment Penny lost her bearings. Quickly the computer took over again.

_Mental stability insufficient; affected from outside source. Source: Unknown._

_Manual control released…survival package engaged. Current objective: subdue Ruby Rose._

Penny fell into the void again, an invisible wall barring her from affecting her body.

_Begin._

* * *

Truly, he was beginning to think something in the greater cosmos was trying to make his life as hard as possible. Every time he believed he was going to have a moment to breathe, something forced its way to him. Every problem he solved seemed to create two more, or worse just come back even more impossible than the first-time round, it was like feeding a street cat only to have every other cat in the neighbourhood swarm to him expecting the same treatment.

It was just four days ago he had found himself looking forward to his near future; his nieces were going to Beacon, the club's business was booming, and the prince had finally decided to humour him. Things were finally looking up. Then his hopes had crashed and burned. His adoptive brother was hospitalised with a terminal injury, Ruby's outbursts were becoming more frequent and harder to hide and, to top it all off, he was now running into the woods surrounding Beacon; in an attempt to avoid what could become potential large-scale destruction.

Whilst he wasn't required to attend the introductory speech the headmaster delivered every year, he often found himself free at the time and figured he would scout out who he would be teaching. Technically, he would only officially teach half of the students that stood in the hall; the other half being assigned to the headmaster himself, but he knew well enough that his boss would be conveniently 'busy' regularly across the course of the year. Obviously, this particular year had his rapt attention, containing his nieces and a few notable others amongst its cohort.

He had been pleasantly surprised to see that none of his girls were put on a team with any boys. It wasn't that he didn't trust the girls, no; he knew they could be sensible when they needed to be, and from the test scores they could all put most the other students on their back with little difficulty. No, what had worried him was that team dorms were not gender discriminant. Each team was given a small apartment within the academy campus with two to four apartments on each floor of the residential area. The girls may have been sensible, but all it took was one spiked drink and things could go south very quickly. Not just for the girls either. Any bastard who dared make that mistake would be found cold and dead in the local park lake, and that was if the club found out first. If one of the other three girls found out… well… death was the least of their worries.

Admittedly, he was slightly worried for Ruby; all three of her sisters had been placed on the same team whilst she was alone with three strangers, and all three of said strangers were abnormal in their own right. Ruby was not the best at talking to people at the best of times and these three were far from easy to approach, at least for anything more meaningful than small talk.

Ruby's partner, Weiss Schnee, was perhaps the most challenging of the team. The Atlesian princess, from what Winter had told him in their short meeting, was very studious, had great manners and respect for elders and would likely not cause many problems at Beacon. At least, that's how Winter had begun to describe her sister, a small proud smile on her face all the while. However, after a moment, the older Schnee seemed to sadden as she continued her summation. Weiss was very competitive and didn't like to come second place to anyone. Winter never expanded further, but he suspected it likely stemmed from something between the siblings, a rivalry perhaps. She had also warned him that Weiss' views on the faunas, or any minority fir that matter, may be… less than desirable; an unpleasant side effect from their father's tutelage.

Next was Penny Polendina. She was certainly a unique case amongst students. After his initial shock of hearing about the synthetic girl, he had yet to see anything that should make her too much of an issue to handle. Of course, that wasn't considering her Grimm and if his hunch was anything to go off of, it wouldn't be long before he found out just how much of a challenge she may be. Supposedly, she was paired with the strongest Grimm on the northern continent, but his relation to Ruby had taught him to temper his expectations until he saw for himself.

Finally, there was Neopolitan. To say that the application process for this girl had been difficult would be a gross understatement. The girl had no family, no recorded permanent residence and seemingly no money. According to national citizenship records, she didn't even exist. Not to mention the aforementioned issues were only the legal ones, which, admittedly, Beacon was no stranger from strong-arming through. The girl was also functionally mute, her tongue having been removed in infancy, leaving her only able to make vague noises, though she preferred not to do so and relied on sign language where possible or if need be writing her words with her semblance. However, there in lay the most confusing thing about the girl; she was educated and shockingly well too. It seemed there was something in her past she was not happy to share even under promises of sworn secrecy.

Ruby's team certainly stood out from the rest and it seemed that before the semester had even officially started, said team was set on supplying him with a headache. As he had watched the teaming ceremony unfold, it had quickly become apparent that something was wrong with Ruby. He had seen the signs perhaps a dozen times across his life, absently massaging her temples, staring at the floor whilst her foot gently tapped against it, all the while trying her best to be invisible.

Of course, moments later, whether or not he had noticed the signs hadn't mattered; a familiar dread washing over him, and the others gathered in the hall. He had anxiously made his way towards her, thankful the ceremony was almost over, only to stop as the sense of trepidation slowly slipped away. At first, he had been proud, she had contained her urge despite being as pent up as she was, but things had quickly changed. It had been gradual, like siphoning water from a lake with a hosepipe, before eventually bursting forth once more, barely contained and all-consuming. He watched as Ruby fled from the hall, hanging on to what was left of her control as she sought to hide herself from everyone.

Ilia and Penny had followed after her shortly before his own pursuit began. He was not as fast as the girls; Ruby was the quickest person he had ever known, and Ilia was no slouch herself with Penny managing to keep pace with her. Eventually, he had caught up, but he soon found himself almost wishing he hadn't.

There, amidst the darkened clearing stood Ruby, almost motionless as a writhing mass of vines curled defensively around her before surging towards Penny. The ginger girl slowed as the attack rapidly approached setting one foot behind her and leaning on her front knee as she prepared to receive the strike. Bart moved to protest, to warn her, before he was silenced as she was struck by the Grimm lashers. She stood unaffected by the force of the vines, giving no reaction to even show she registered getting hit, not an inch of ground given. The vines jumped on her hesitation; quickly entangling the girl who stood motionless as she was being entombed by the ever-growing mass.

Moments passed as Penny disappeared beneath the Grimm, hidden from view, as it tightened its grip around her, restricting as much movement as possible. Eventually the plant Grimm could constrict no further and the clearing moved into an uneasy silence, the only sounds breaking through being that of the odd Grimm breaking out from the surface of Ruby's shadow, though they too seemed to quietly anticipate the next move. Bart would have assumed Penny dead or at least incapacitated, if not for the rapt attention being given by the Grimm that surrounded her prison, waiting. They knew she was still alive, capable and if their trepidation to get closer was anything to go by, she wasn't fazed.

A sickly tearing and snapping sound gradually filled the glade as the vines came to life once more, seemingly struggling with what lay beneath them. The sound exploded in its volume as two pale arms burst from the sides of the black and white trap, both gripping the surrounding vines with enough force for the bone thorns beneath her palms to crunch and break. The squelching and shearing sounds of flesh being torn reverberated off the wall of tress that surrounded them as Penny tore herself free and emerged from the now limp and dissipating vine cage.

The ginger girl quickly snapped her gaze towards Ruby, emotionless and focused. Bart's stomach dropped as the monster of a girl slowly marched towards his niece, hellbent on her objective. Ruby's summoned Grimm swarmed to fill the gap between the pair as the vines regrew and gathered once more, but even as the small army amassed, Bart could make out something that truly shocked him. He watched as a possessed Ruby took a step back. Her features were blank; not really belonging to the creature wielding them, but the message was clear. It didn't think it could win. It was scared.

The moment of weakness cost it. As if she could smell the hesitation, Penny briefly crouched before rocketing forward. The wall of grimm lurched to intercept, a black wave of tooth and claw announced only by the noise of their own snarling maws. One by one the beasts fell, their fangs broke on her skin, their sinew was sundered beneath her fists and their roars died in their crushed throats. Penny was unstoppable, only given brief pause whenever the vines regenerated enough to aid the grimm tide, though they too only added minor strain to the ginger girl's efforts.

Bart did not know for how long he watched, simply stunned by the ferocity and efficiency with which Penny tore through her opposition. She wasn't as flashy as Ruby, Yang or even Nora, but as he observed her carve a path through the monstrous legion before her, she seemed unstoppable. It was unnatural to see her thin, almost fragile, frame achieve such feats of strength and durability. Eventually he shook himself free of his stupor, aided by the sudden snapping of a branch beside him.

The professor whipped his head around, already on high alert, he reached to his for a gun that wasn't there, silently cursing his forgetfulness. His sudden action caused the source of the sound to startle and flinch away suddenly before both locked gazes and the tension lowered slightly. From out of the forest crept Neopolitan, an expression of shocked horror on her face as she beheld the sight of the battle in the clearing before them. For a moment Bart made to obstruct her vision, but soon realised the futility of hiding the scene, the sound alone was more than enough to convey the unnatural nature of this bout. For many moments she simply stared with her mouth and eyes wide.

Eventually, Bart followed her gaze back towards the clearing, noting that her stare never left Penny. Odd, whilst she was certainly a sigh to behold, the far more eye drawing one of the pair was definitely Ruby, stood amongst the monsters and enshrouded in vine. He ignored her pointed interest, perhaps it was due to the fact that Ruby wasn't moving whilst Penny was certainly putting on a ferocious display as she parted the black sea. He tried to snap her from her, seemingly terror induced, inner spiral. He cleared his throat in an attempt to garner her attention.

"Miss Neopolitan." For a moment he went ignored, simply another sound in the din created by the fight. Only after he gently tapped her shoulder did her focus return to him, though her gaze continuously flickered back to the other two present, seeing this, Bart continued. "I would advise you run back to the academy, I will be sure to answer any questions you may have, but I am afraid now is not the time." It took a second for his words sink in before she responded. She rapidly shook her head before a slew of words appeared in the space between them.

_I can help._

* * *

So far, everything was going well. The kin had surprised it; her pervious trepidation and hesitation had vanished, her spark muted further, only to replaced with efficient determination and objective movements. It had been off-putting, to see a foe change so drastically and rapidly, but eventually, as the fight raged on it managed to assess the situation.

The kin wasn't beatable, far from it; without the young mistress, it stood no chance, but luckily, aside from the terrifying strength and impenetrable body, the kin had not shown any problematic abilities. If things continued at their current rate the mistress would finish her growth before their assailant was able to defeat it. It would only have to hold for a few more minutes, the edges of the mistress' shadow were already coming back into view. Whilst it could not seem to harm the kin, it had managed to stall her effectively multiple times, whether it managed to snag her foot or misdirect a strike, every second the girl spent not attacking and moving closer was a glorious success.

It could feel the mistress begin to stir, the agony induced coma slowly losing its grip over her mind, it would still be a small time before she regained consciousness completely, but it served as a suitable warning for how much longer it would have to defend her.

Inwardly it sighed. The mistress was kin too, one it had been forcefully attached to for eight years, guided by nothing more than the few remaining whispers of something much older than either of them.

' _Protect her'_ they had ordered. At first it had been irritated; forced to babysit a half breed youngling for the foreseeable future, but then it had felt it, her strength. As all grimm, the mistress would grow stronger with age, but, from birth, she had been a monster amongst monsters. Suddenly, it had known the importance of its role in her life, in the life of all grimm. Even as it prepared to face the kin before it now, it would protect her until it could no more. It was under no illusion that it would die, the mistress fed it well and it had grown far stronger than its lifespan would otherwise allow, becoming a grimm of strength comparable to that of others many times its years. That did not, however, mean it enjoyed the feeling of knowing there was something it could not defend the mistress from within the bounds of the kingdoms.

Its thoughts were suddenly torn back to the current moment; a sudden eruption of snarling punctuated by squelching and whimpering. Its gaze flicked suddenly to the younglings who aided it in the defence of the mistress. It lacked the fine control over the mistress' body required to widen her eyes or raise her eyebrows, but it knew it would if such a feat were possible. The front of beasts were occupied as before, falling valiantly in the line of protection against the far stronger kin, but now, amidst the several dozen remaining beasts, a new bout of chaos had arisen.

It watched as the wolf younglings turned on the bears, the scorpions assailed the boars, before eventually turning on their own kind as well. Soon a bloodbath ensued, the once united grimm tearing through each other, thinning their own ranks from within. It watched as the ginger girl slowly met less and less resistance, what it had hoped would take her a few minutes was now accomplished in seconds, gaining ground as her opponents now fought amongst themselves.

It searched hurriedly for the source of the infighting, trying to find what could have set the younglings off and against each other, but it could only see the carnage, nothing besides the savage display stood within the bounds of the clearing. Until it spotted it. It was faint, little more than a hum in the greater cacophony that consumed the glen, but, as it reached out with its senses, it found it. A faded trace of a human spark in the shape of a youngling.

He retracted his sense, closing in on the singular phenomenon before looking once more through the mistress' eyes. If it had possessed a maw of its own to snarl with it would have done so. He watched as younglings fought illusory imitations of themselves, too young to use their senses such as it had, they had grown confused and lashed out at those around them. A few planted fakes fooling the greater force to fight amongst themselves, unsure of who to trust.

Frantically it tried to call the younglings back to their senses, to strip away the foul-playing deception plaguing their minds and to reassert control, but it could not. The mistress' powers were not its own and it had no real authority over the other grimm aside from its superior strength and age, its commands and orders fell on deaf ears as the younglings eviscerated each other or were pummelled by the ginger girl. Said kin was now just a few meters from the mistress, separated only by itself and a few remaining younglings too focused on the girl to bother with the infighting around them.

Now up close, the cold, emotionless stare that the kin affixed to it unnerved it. The edges of the mistress' shadow hung only a dozen or so meters behind the kin, so close to finishing yet so far from safety. The younglings that now fell could no longer effortlessly slip back into the cold embrace of the umbral cradle from whence they came, instead becoming shadows of their own before slowly traveling the distance required to be reclaimed by its fold. It could not waste time on such thoughts.

Quickly, it formed a wall of vines, lined with dagger-like thorns, obscuring itself from the kin's vision, and prepared several tendrils waiting to use them like serrated garrotte wire. Barely a moment passed after the wall was erected before a dainty fist tore a hole through it, another sliding in beside it to open the breach further so that the kin could slip through. It commanded the wall to contract, squeezing the protruding digits in an attempt to pry them free and shore-up the barrier.

No such luck. The hands simply continued to tear open the space, as if unaffected by the additional force placed on its strength. Soon a head of ginger hair framing hollow, electric green eyes was visible through the sundered shield. It seized the moment, the kin's guard to open to defend herself, the jagged black ropes it prepared sprung forth ensnaring the arms and neck of its target. The efforts were met with the sound of a metallic screech before fading into the familiar splintering of bone as the thorns tore across her exposed neck only to break before drawing blood.

The kin took a step forward a now unlaboured hand reaching for her neck and with little effort snapping the entangling grimm off, as if pulling string from a fraying scarf. It attempted to retreat the mistress' body, only to be interrupted as the hand shot out and grabbed the mistress' jacket by the collar. The remaining vines swarmed to the defence, holding the extended limb against the mistress' body; if the limb could not retract it could not strike with force. Luckily the other hand was still occupied by the remaining strangles and the remnants of the wall. It attempted to stall the kin.

" _You don't understand! You must let the mistress finish her growth!"_ It grew aware of the lack of strength in the mistress' slightly distorted voice; her breathing was growing rapid as the growth came to an end, the crescendo before the silence. It had to stall for just a minute longer. _"If you don't let her grow, she'll eventually lose control! She'll kill you all!"_ The kin didn't respond, giving it only the stare of an empty husk as it fought for control of its other limb in order to deliver the finishing blow.

It was vaguely aware as three human sparks ran towards it, unable to use the mistress' eyes as its remaining strength was used entirely to restrain the girls one crucial limb. Two came from the direction of the academy and one from behind it, no longer barred by the now occupied vines. The shadow beneath the mistress' feet was but a few inches from the correct size, the process almost finished...

Then its strength faltered.

The restraint on the kin's arm slipped, its senses dimmed, and its vines tore, though it had only a muted sense of pain as its body was shredded beneath the huge power, too weak to fully acknowledge its control over the mistress' body fade.

Its flowers wilted as Ruby's tattoo returned to only cover her back, and the conjured vines faded.

It had failed the mistress.

* * *

_Resistance nullified… incapacitating target. Altering strength output to avoid permanent injury…_

The computer forced Penny's body back preparing to lean into the final strike, ignoring the shouts of protest from the rapidly approaching people. It suddenly lurched forward intent on ensure Ruby was subdued, only to be stopped less than an inch from the girls exposed gut.

" _Wait!"_

* * *

**AN:** **As always thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. I know I said that I would release another chapter before** **Christmas, but my internet actually cut out about a week ago and as of this chapter going live it has been fixed for about half a day. However, silver lining, I was bored over the last week so I have mostly written the next chapter, so it should be out in about a week if everything goes well. Thank you to those who have offered feedback and support, both here and on FF.net, and, as always, said feedback or criticism is appreciated.**

**P.S. I apologise if this is a bit hard to read at times, I found it difficult to write with 'it' as the main focus point whilst distinguishing 'it' from other various it or its. Eventually 'it' will have a name, but not yet, so it is a necessary evil.**

**\- Tabaxi**


	21. Chapter 21

Frankly, Bart had had enough. Nothing seemed capable of going correctly or as planned anymore. He had made a deal with Winter to introduce Ruby and Penny to one another but, low and behold, he had found them, or at least some part of them, at each other's throats before he could do so. He had then been met with the reality of the danger he was one emotionally charged argument away from facing over the course of the next four years.

Ruby was a monster beyond compare, or rather her abilities were monstrous, it was unfair to call the girl as such. She hadn't wanted her power after all, and he could hardly blame her; the surging tide of her strength constantly latching on to every minor negative emotion, driving her senses and mind into a haze, goading her to let it free. Partially, he wondered if it would be a good idea to let her do so, perhaps in a secluded or abandoned area, though he was wasn't sure if he was willing to take a risk that could threaten destruction on untold levels. On one hand it may lessen the strain on Ruby's mind if her grimm could both literally and metaphorically stretch their legs. However, the other, much more prevalent, hand warned him of the potential of Ruby never coming back from that edge once she had crossed it.

Penny, on the other hand, was a surprise. If he was being honest, he hadn't expected much from the girl. Supposedly, she possessed the strongest known grimm from the northern continent, the scope of which he was thoroughly undereducated on, but previously he had been unsure of how much that actually meant. Prince Qrow had been considered a prodigy without equal, his grimm quite literally bending luck itself in his favour, but Bart had been there when the prince had met Ruby, or at least unofficially met. The prince's grimm did not help him, it had refused to aid him attempt to knock the girl unconscious, either unable or unwilling to he did not know, but until now he had thought Ruby peerless. Then this happened.

Bart was no fool; he understood that neither party in this exchange had gone all out, perhaps they were not even close to doing so. Penny had put little effort into strategy or movement, acknowledging all of the attacks unable to actually harm her, and, though he wasn't entirely sure of what had occurred with Ruby this time, he had seen far more impressive displays on her part in the past. But the sheer fact that Penny could draw on her grimm around Ruby made her a significantly more threatening opponent. It had been done before, both Yang and Nora managing to do so in the past, but neither had been able to do so after Ruby had attempted to stop them.

 _Well…_ he supposed, _that's not strictly true._

It was true that, whilst the two incidents had both been similar to each other and the current situation, they were not entirely the same and held key differences. Nora had been able to oppose Ruby to begin with, even able to momentarily overpower the vines that constantly guarded the girl, but she was eventually overwhelmed and collared, rendering her unable to raise her power towards Ruby any further. Yang's incident was starkly different in that manner. The girl had been able to access her power long into the fight, but it had seemed as if Ruby had allowed her to do so, almost as an act of demoralisation; cementing the fact that Yang's hope had never really been founded.

In that case Yang's grimm had not only ignored her calls for power, but outright revolted, turning her once proud inferno into a self-destructive death-trap. Ruby had not needed a collar this time however, simply commanding her grimm to turn on her and being obeyed. There in lay the confusing problem; how?

At first, he had entertained the idea that perhaps Nora's grimm was stronger, requiring constant exertion from the collar to maintain control. However, such a view was quickly dispelled by the prince himself. Yang, whilst certainly trying as hard as she was allowed to, was holding back rather heavily in her fight with Ruby. Not to say she stood a chance, quite the opposite in fact if Ruby could turn her grimm against her anyway, but rather she had to hold back the sheer firepower of her grimm to avoid harming the nearby civilian buildings and people. Qrow had explained it as 'It was one thing for a princess to get too heavy handed in an argument and harm a few involved individuals, but to cremate an entire city block and its inhabitants was much less forgivable'.

Bart had felt the need to retort; the idea that any life was expendable on a noble's whim was rather disgusting to him, but it seemed the prince had read his mind and agreed, displaying his own hardened frown. However, it still left the issue of what separated the two cases and how Ruby subdued them.

The current issue with Penny shared characteristics of both and neither previous events. Penny seemed in full control of her power throughout the fight and was notably holding back like Yang, though for perhaps different reasons. 'Ruby' had also spoken in that weird tone again, speaking as if she were not herself and in fact something or someone else entirely. However, it was the similarities to Nora's case which truly set his mind to its usual fervent work.

_She's not a Branwen._

From what he could gather, it seemed that Ruby had much greater control over the Branwen's grimm than others, with Yang, Qrow and even the king himself all expressing the feeling of being abandoned or betrayed by their grimm. Whatever the reason as to why, he did not know. Perhaps it was because she herself was part Branwen that she had some pre-existing bond to them and as such the transference of willpower was easier. Though, he supposed that wouldn't make any sense, after all, Summer had shown equal immunity to Qrow's grimm and she was not related to the Branwens. His mind began a familiar journey into a slew of theories and ideas and subconsciously he sipped from his already empty thermos. Eventually, he was freed from his mental rut by a throaty shout bringing him back to the present and he remembered the situation he found himself in.

Returning his gaze once more to the clearing he broke into a sprint in hopes he would make it to Penny before she possibly took it too far. Beside him Neopolitan kept pace, an unknown expression blinking on and off of her features. That was another thing that was perhaps a little odd. The multi-coloured girl had not hesitated to jump in and help the situation, even seeming eager to do so. It was possible that she simply acknowledged the threat and was simply drew the conclusion to help the most human thing in the bout, but that then raised the question as to how she managed to do so as effectively as she had. Perhaps there was more to it, but as he drew close to his niece and Penny, he pocketed the information for another time; Ruby's health came first.

He knew not what had halted Penny's advances and, though he wished to berate her for even considering taking the fight further, he was thankful as he slid up next to his supine niece. Feverishly, he inspected her unconscious body for irregularities, checking her breathing first. It was uneven and irregular though it was not enough to worry about as it seemed to slowly return to a familiar rhythm. Next, he ran his hands along her arms and legs, squeezing when he met large muscle masses such as the biceps and calves. Oddly, he was met with resistance, as if she was constantly tensing up or preparing to spring up.

Curious, he narrowed his eyes and moved to inspect her eyes. Gently he pulled apart her closed eyelids, surprised to see her eyes sporadically shift every half a second or so. He moved to do one final test, carefully lifting her onto her side and pulling up her shirt to reveal her back and the image splayed out across it. Subconsciously, he realised how this may appear to other people; an adult man preying on an unconscious and unresponsive girl but, as always, his tenacious inquisitiveness won out over his image preservation.

The tattoo moved as always, though it appeared to be sluggish in its movements and, whereas before it had seemed to sprawl out, protecting Ruby but ready to pounce at any moment, now it seemed almost scared, cowed. The vines were still depicted to coil around Ruby, but they hardly moved, conserving energy, the thorns were chipped or dulled, and the blood fell infrequently as if used up. It was likely a sign of fatigue, but with no conformation or previous cases to compare it to, he couldn't say for definite.

Strained pants tore him from his musings, Ilia crashing to her knees beside her sister, concern twisting across her face, only exacerbated by the green and brown shades of her skin and hair. Eventually, she seemed to arrive at a conclusion she was happy with and released a relieved breath, settling into a momentary calm silence.

Suddenly, the chameleon faunas shot back to her feet, her deft hands sliding Ruby's handgun free from the girl's waist and spinning in one smooth motion, ending with the weapon pointed at the other two girls present. Neo immediately flinched back, her hand going to her own waist but freezing as she realised that she would be too slow. Penny, for her part, didn't even appear to care, looking past Ilia towards Ruby and back to her own hands repeatedly, as if confused by some great mystery. Perhaps it was the reason she suddenly halted her assault on Ruby. Ilia didn't care.

"Don't move!" The words were spoken threateningly and through gritted teeth. In truth, it was only so Ilia could hide the shakiness in her voice, unsure if she could control her words in the face of the two girls without it. She bit her tongue in hope the pain would lessen the tremble she felt creep in.

Ilia spotted words begin to form in the air around Neo, attempting to use her semblance to covey her thoughts. The polychromatic girl's efforts were thwarted as the chameleon girl moved the handgun an inch closer, a warning. The faunas had no knowledge of the limits of Neo's semblance and was not about to test them.

"None of that!" Penny still did not turn towards her, something that the faunas found unsettling; whether she was too focused on whatever was ailing her mind or simply did not see Ilia as a threat, she did not know. Instead, she focused on the one she could get a reaction out of; deciding to deal with one problem at a time.

"Who are you?" After a moment of awkward silence, she realised she had just barred the girl from using her semblance to speak. "You can use it, _slowly._ " Neo seemed confused as to how she was supposed to slowly use her semblance to speak, but erred on the side of caution, willing the words to form one letter at a time.

' _Neopolitan'_ The words lacked the flair Bart had become rather used to from her application meetings, no pink letters or other stylisation, just black letters over a white background so they could be easily read. Ilia snarled at the response, her finger over the trigger twitching slightly.

"Bullshi…" Her voice was silenced mid-way.

"Ilia!" Bart's bark cut over the beginning of the tirade. The professor rarely raised his voice, surprising the faunas into halting. Slowly, he heaved a sigh into the momentary silence, and pushed his glass back into their regular position on the bridge of his nose. "Now is not the time for a fight." Ilia's brows furrowed.

"You can't be ser…" A hard glare quieted her once more.

"I am aware of her response to the situation, but, as of this moment, she is not my concern." He gestured to Ruby's unconscious body and then to the mesmerised Penny. "I will discuss everything with you and the girls later, but, right now, I need to take Ruby to my office to be monitored and Penny will come with me for individual questioning." Faintly, he was aware of a low hum buzzing near the back of his mind, a blur of white noise urging him to… no, he was tired, and he had a headache as a result, that was all.

"Now, can I trust you two to not kill each other and wait patiently in your dorms? I will collect the pair of you and the rest of your teams later." Ilia's skin and eyes darkened, a sign she was slightly cowed, the words from her uncle catching her off guard and his tone scaring her slightly, never has she seen him so… irate. The professor held his hand out expectantly and, hesitantly, she nodded and handed him the gun. "Good, now, Penny."

The sound of her name seemed to pull her form whatever stupor had taken her attention, though she seemed to drift back when he didn't immediately say something. He had to move the two of them, Ruby and Penny were not yet definitively safe in the open and… no, that was all.

"Penny, if you would come with me for a while, I would greatly _appreciate_ your co-operation." He emphasised his words in an attempt to maintain her attention for a prolonged moment. Slowly, she nodded and, after a moment, whilst he stooped down to pick up Ruby, she followed him towards the academy.

Briefly, he glanced over his shoulder at the other two who began to walk away towards the dorms, on a similar but not identical path to his own. He was forgetting something, he had to… no, he was tired, overthinking things, like he always did.

* * *

_Idiot! All you had to do was stay hidden!_

Neo's mind raced as she wandered through the few remaining metres of the forest before the pair of them would reach the courtyard in front of their dorms. She had to think of a plan and fast, if they reached a public space, she wouldn't be able to prevent the issue later, she had to strike now. The means as to how, escaped her, however.

Oobleck had been easy enough to alter, his fatigue and stress all too easy to latch onto and exacerbate, constantly forcing other things to the front of his mind was simple, he had much to think on besides her. Her work had been a temporary patch, a solution that would need further support to become a true remedy, that was where the chameleon girl came in. The girl was a hard target, she couldn't amplify her anger, it would simply make her campaign against Neo more zealous and thorough.

Ilia didn't trust her, that much as obvious, but she would have to change that now, but she struggled to create the situation required and she was quickly running out of time as the low mumbling chatter of students came back into earshot. The faunas girl didn't even trust her enough to walk beside her, instead following her several paces behind with her hand gently resting against a concealed knife in her jacket.

 _Just force the link!_ _You don't have time to think further!_

But, she couldn't, could she? It was too risky, if other people noticed, she'd be dead meat. Perhaps she could fabricate a cover up, but how long would it last? A month? Two?

_You will have even less time if you don't do it now!_

But it could ruin the girl, she was an obstacle, not a target.

_Do it! Don't be a coward!_

But…

_You're weak!_

She spun on her heels.

Ilia jumped back, prepared for the outburst; she knew this girl was planning something. First, she didn't run or react at the sight of grimm, Ruby's grimm no less, and then Bart shrugs it off as if nothing happened and someone didn't just discover what was possibly Vale's most deadly secret.

The multicoloured girl attempted to tackle Ilia, surging forward, and keeping her guard close. Her mistake. Within seconds, Ilia turned to the side, reversing all of the girl's momentum against her and flipping her onto her back, a knife now pinned against her exposed throat.

"Nice try bitch. Wrong tactic though." She pressed her knee onto Neo's right arm and pinned the other with her free hand. Neo simply glared at her, a hint of regret sliding out from behind her eyes. Eventually, a smile flashed across her face, a silent, crazed laugh forcing her chest to convulse. Ilia was confused. "What's so funny?" In response bubbly pink words formed in front of her.

' _You fucked up'_

Ilia flinched as pink and brown eyes blinked closed, only to be replaced by burning red orbs of hate. Grimm eyes. Her momentary hesitation was all the smaller girl needed. Suddenly, she lurched forward, the combination of the unpreparedness of her captor and her speed was all she required to get the one shot she needed. The faunas watched in horror as Neo sprung forward, sinking her teeth into the side of her neck, too surprised to react in time. Ilia felt her scream drown in her throat, her vision blurring as her body fell slack against the attack, something in her, in _them,_ restraining her as she silently resisted.

The image of Neo pulling her from Apep's cell floated into her mind. Those gentle hands, the warm smile, the calming aura. She was beautiful, perfect, her saviour in her darkest hour. Finally, she wasn't alone anymore. She only needed Neo.

_No!_

A faint whisper on a distant wind, irksome and alien.

_This is wrong!_

And yet it was sweet, alluring. It faded, as all things did. Except Neo, she was always there for her. Always had been, always would be. Neo was her rock, her purpose for existing, her angel. A tear ran down her cheek. She was…

"My love."

* * *

**As always, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. I know this chapter came far later then I said it would, but all I can say is that Covid and the lockdown is kicking my arse. Its a little shorter than I would perhaps like, but the next bit may take me more words than I'm comfortable sliding into this chapter, we may be talking 10k word chapter here, and here was a decent place to stop. I apologise if the pacing seems a little off, but I did my best and practice makes perfect so here we are. This story will not be abandoned, but the irregularity of my schedule is making being organised hard.** **Reviews and feedback are appreciated and hopefully the next chapter will be more prompt.**

**-Tabaxi**


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